Department or Program

English

Abstract

In my thesis I explore how various characters in Macbeth queer time, space, and bodies in the play. I mostly focus on Lady Macbeth, the Weird Sisters, and the Macduff family, who each present different kinship models and relationships with queer versions of these major themes. Using Jack Halberstam’s theory of queer temporality and Amanda Zoch’s analysis of that theory in Macbeth, I analyze how characters are able to exert agency over the normative progression of time in a variety of ways, particularly in destabilizing the play’s society’s emphasis on generational succession. Additionally, Irina Aristarkohiva’s revision of Derrida and Levinas’s work on hospitality directs my approach to Lady Macbeth and the Weird Sisters’ twisting and warping of space to their own ends. Early modern ideas about the expectations and potential dangers of female bodies and motherhood, as well as Aristarkhova’s theorizing of the maternal, inform my exploration of how bodies (especially the maternal body) are queered in Macbeth. By engaging in or aligning themselves with queer interpretations of time, space, and bodies, characters in Macbeth trouble norms that are otherwise taken for granted in the play, and it is very often these queer interpretations that propel the play forward. Macbeth places importance in its queer temporalities, spaces, and bodies—they affect individuals, interactions, and relationships onstage, as well as the very fabric of the world of the play.

Level of Access

Open Access

First Advisor

Wright, Myra

Date of Graduation

5-2021

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Number of Pages

61

Components of Thesis

1 pdf file

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