“To give a kingdom for a mirth": spazio e identità nell’Antony and Cleopatra shakespeariano

This paper maps the parallel construction of space and identity in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, a play in which geographical spaces clearly acquire semantic and symbolic value. The interactions between these radically opposed topographical spaces and the characters who inhabit them are key to an insightful geocritical reading of characterisation within play. Rome is a place of politics, power and progress while Egypt is characterized by opulence, luxury and pleasure – Octavia and Cleopatra, embody these places. The construction of Antony, through his inhabitation of these parallel spaces and his relationships with these women and the places they represent, both as limen and limes, sheds new light on the play as a whole.