Traversing Monstrosity: Power and Peril upon Shakespeare’s Roads

Abstract

Sharon Emmerichs examines how Shakespeare uses roads not only as a means to get from one place to another, but also as a means to go from one state of being to another. Using references from As You Like It, Titus Andronicus, and Twelfth Night, Sharon Emmerichs explores how in Shakespeare comedies women change from "natural" to "monstrous” and then are able to recover from this change. However, in Shakespeare tragedies such changes lead women to their death, on a road that cannot be diverted. Dr. Sharon Emmerichs teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Shakespeare, Renaissance literature, and poetry in the UAA English Department. She received her B.A. in English literature from the University of Oregon and her M.A. and PhD. D. from the University of Missouri.