Shakespeare's sister: Digital archives reveal insights into unknown sibling

https://phys.org/news/2024-03-shakespeare-sister-digital-archives-reveal.html

by stareatgoats • 2 years ago

72 23 2 years ago

mttpgn2• 2 years ago

Virginia Woolf wrote a famous essay, 'Shakespeare's sister', about how a figure like her could never hope to be a writer or have her writing preserved, so she has become something of a symbol for all the lost voices of early modern women.

This is a central point also that Woolf makes in _A Room of One's Own_.

atmosx• 2 years ago

...which according to my wife is an awesome book (she is reading it right now).

mttpgn2• 2 years ago

There's a funny moment where she goes (paraphrasing), if you're a man stop reading right now, this part is not for you, ladies only.

dagoodnews• 2 years ago

The reigning monarch during much of shakespeare and his sister's life was queen elizabeth - a woman.

krapp• 2 years ago

Yes, and of course all of the rights and social privileges which applied to the monarchy applied likewise to everyone else, and thus all women during the Elizabethan era were precisely as free as Elizabeth herself.

mootothemax• 2 years ago

And the most famous line from her most famous speech is… ?

pyuser583• 2 years ago

Between Elizabeth I, Catherine Di Medici, Roxalana of Turkey, and Mary Queen of Scots, female rulers were unusually common.

Female writers were unusually rare.

verisimi• 2 years ago

The quote you give, is a nice example to see how history, historical research, etc has everything to do with setting the scene for the present, and not much to do with the past.

History is a present day activity. It is akin to the background scenery in a play - it provides the context for the present, it sets up our current stories. It's all to do with interpretation, and that is only ever present.

astrodust• 2 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespears_Sister on the money here.

stareatgoats• 2 years ago

on the money here.

Or, maybe not, according to the article. But "Stay" is still an amazing piece of art.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCYaALgW80c

omnibrain2• 2 years ago

Siobhan Fahey's performance is otherworldly! We named our daughter after her (and a bit after Siobhán Donaghy).

chgs• 2 years ago

I was 10 when stay came out but I can still remember the music video clear as day. Only other one from that time I remember that clearly was earth song.

bazoom422• 2 years ago

Apparently the band was named after the song by the Smiths, which in turn was named after the essay by Virginia Woolf.

qingcharles• 2 years ago

bazoom422• 2 years ago

What is the relevance?

djur• 2 years ago

Like all alternative authorship theories, this one is based on a fundamental misunderstanding, that being that "great art" is necessarily biographical or reflects the "soul" of the artist. Once you've made that error, you can trivially point out that Shakespeare wrote about people, places, and situations that the Stratford man wouldn't have been personally familiar with, and then you can pick anyone else you like from the era that you think might match your profile better. This exact process has been used for Bacon, Derby, Oxford, and dozens of other claimants; nobody has offered a truly new argument against Shakespeare for decades.

I recommend the book _Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?_ by James S. Shapiro as the definitive work examining, explaining, and debunking alternative authorship theories. It's thoughtful and well-written, not the dry diatribe one might expect.

bloak• 2 years ago

At first I thought you were referring to _Who wrote Shakespeare?_ by John Michell, which I would recommend. They sound like very similar books.

If anyone has read both recently, what are the main differences between them?

boomboomsubban• 2 years ago

So they found this document, two people saw it, they made a digital copy, and then the original was lost? That seems to be what the linked article is saying, and I can't access the paper.

That seems sketchy as hell.

KingOfCoders• 2 years ago

Stay!

Shakespeare's sister: Digital archives reveal insights into unknown sibling

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