Bloomsbury Queens in Antiquity and the Present: Speculative Visions and Critical Histories

This transdisciplinary edited volume explores the concept of queenship in antiquity and the present. Featuring the work of scholars, educators and artists, this book gathers temporally and geographically distant ideas about queenship into a single discursive space. Invigorating the conversation around powerful historical women and their legacies, the contributors discuss ‘queenship’ as a concept with contemporary urgency, conducive to critical and creative interventions that address the gaps within archives and current cultural and socio-political representation. Although traditional narratives present queens of the ancient Mediterranean world as the wives, daughters, and mothers of kings – emphasizing formidable, stand-out examples such as Semiramis and Cleopatra – the ways in which royal women wielded power, whether directly or indirectly, were actually multivariate, highly nuanced and culturally specific. Current scholarship featured in this volume is concerned with teasing out modern, western assumptions that have heavily colored interpretations of gender and power in antiquity. This volume attempts to dismantle the problematic historical narratives and constructions of queenship by presenting different kinds of receptions and speculative articulations of historical queenship, thus forging new paths forward.