Hybrid spaces in Antony and cleopatra

Elisabeth Bronfen

pp. 103-120

in: Ina Habermann, Michelle Witen (eds), Shakespeare and space, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Abstract

Bronfen reads Antony and Cleopatra as a tragedy of hybrid spaces. Emphasizing the carnivalesque way in which Cleopatra embodies Egypt, Bronfen explores how cross-dressing and gendered masquerade blend with the concept of the king's two bodies expressed in the duality of body natural and body politic, particularly resonant during Queen Elizabeth's reign. Exploiting and confusing this duality, Cleopatra throws open a theatrical space wherever she goes, and conversely, her embodiment on stage, and the dramatic connection between the Egyptian and the English queen, opens up a hybrid space that is both historical and mythical, including, and at the same time going beyond the geopolitical dimension. Finally, Cleopatra's 'self-designed apotheosis' introduces a final moment of hybridity, creating a space of textual regeneration.