Available May 2026

Edward Everett Root Publishers Co. Ltd.

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Shakespeare’s Effeminacy

Essences of the Plays and Poems

by Sky Gilbert

About this book

This radical new work of cultural history is not concerned with the effeminacy of Shakespeare the man, but with the effeminacy of his work.

The book is a cultural critique to help us understand the often confusing, conflicted nature of modern sexuality, utilizing Shakespeare’s work as the basis of an extensive contemporary enquiry.

Professor Sky Gilbert’s contention is that Shakespeare’s plays have been misinterpreted due to prudery, and there is a very real fear of the challenges they present, even today, to our notions about sex, love, sexuality and gender. Opening this door exposes us to a deeper understanding of his work, and ourselves.

Shakespeare’s Effeminacy analyses Shakespeare’s work in the context of early modern Italian culture. Thirteen of his 51 plays are set in Italy, Greece or imagined Mediterranean locations. Importantly, his radical vision of masculinity, and of what the author here call ‘Shakespeare’s hermaphroditism,’ finds its origins in the Italian culture of Shakespeare’s time.

The book rests on the assumption that Shakespeare was Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford (who visited Italy for 15 months in 1575-76). But it is less about de Vere than it is concerned with understanding notions of sexuality and gender in the works.