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Panel 3: Entangling Conceptions of „Weak Rule“, and „Femininity“ from Shakespeare Plays to Presidential Representation

This panel discusses the perceptions and contemporary actualizations of the early modern entanglement of „weak rule“ and „femininity“ in literature, film and politics. While female rulership was anything but an exception in medieval and early modern times, a discursive de-politicization and „naturalization“ of female took shape in Renaissance literature, law and entertainment; it intertwined „weak rule“ and „femininity“ to exclude and silence women in contested areas of dynastic power struggles, but also to demean disagreeable male rulers –most prominently displayed in Shakespeare’s plays. The three contributions in this panel scrutinize the perception of this early modern topos in its double folded gender-crossing perspective from the 19th-century plays of “Mary Stuart”, performances practices in Shakespeare productions and media staging of female black leaders today.