Staging sexual difference: the cultural appropriation of Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth in Eighteenth-Century England and Germany

This essay traces a topic that seems not to have found much scholarly interest yet. It deals with one of the most rominent, but also one of the most enigmatic and much discussed1 female characters of world literature, i.e., Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, and traces its fortunes on British and German stages in a period of time that was particularly interesting with regard to changing concepts of sexual difference. As the history of criticism and the stage history of Macbeth teach us, the reception of the character of Lady Macbeth has undergone major changes through the centuries. So far critics have attributed these changes mostly to different views of the notions of tragedy and to various interpretations of the play and its prevailing themes. Different representations of Macbeth and his Lady on the stage have been attributed mainly to changing artistic concepts and the art of directors, actors and actresses. What has hitherto been left largely unexplored is to relate these changing concepts on the stage to fundamental changes in concepts of sexual difference in the respective societies.This essay traces a topic that seems not to have found much scholarly interest yet. It deals with one of the most rominent, but also one of the most enigmatic and much discussed1 female characters of world literature, i.e., Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, and traces its fortunes on British and German stages in a period of time that was particularly interesting with regard to changing concepts of sexual difference. As the history of criticism and the stage history of Macbeth teach us, the reception of the character of Lady Macbeth has undergone major changes through the centuries. So far critics have attributed these changes mostly to different views of the notions of tragedy and to various interpretations of the play and its prevailing themes. Different representations of Macbeth and his Lady on the stage have been attributed mainly to changing artistic concepts and the art of directors, actors and actresses. What has hitherto been left largely unexplored is to relate these changing concepts on the stage to fundamental changes in concepts of sexual difference in the respective societies