
Tree-Becoming
Gender, Race, and Trauma on Shakespeare's Stage
Shannon Kelley(Author)
Cornell University Press
Will be published approx. on 15. June 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-5017-8730-0 (ISBN)
Description
Trees abound in Shakespeare's plays, and in Tree-Becoming, Shannon Kelley explores how he uses his characters' identification with cypress, balsam, bay laurel, myrrh, and pine trees as metaphors to express emotional distress. Opening new avenues for investigating knowledge of the plant world in early modern literature, Kelley traces the Ovidian conceit of arboreal transformation in A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear, Othello, and The Tempest.
Through the recurring motif of tree-becoming, in which characters who can no longer endure painful feelings align with or are imagined as trees, Kelley proposes a radical reading of Shakespeare's depiction of trauma's lingering impact on the body and psyche. These arboreal moments resist resolution and resist healing, offering instead a vision of survival and endurance. Bringing Shakespeare in conversation with insights from critical plant and trauma studies, Tree-Becoming honors survivors of trauma as they are, not as we would have them be: they become trees - different, but not less than.
Through the recurring motif of tree-becoming, in which characters who can no longer endure painful feelings align with or are imagined as trees, Kelley proposes a radical reading of Shakespeare's depiction of trauma's lingering impact on the body and psyche. These arboreal moments resist resolution and resist healing, offering instead a vision of survival and endurance. Bringing Shakespeare in conversation with insights from critical plant and trauma studies, Tree-Becoming honors survivors of trauma as they are, not as we would have them be: they become trees - different, but not less than.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Ithaca
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
8 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 152 mm
Width: 229 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
376 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5017-8730-0 (9781501787300)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
approx. 06/2026
Cornell University Press
€23.49
Available for download
Person
Shannon Kelley is Associate Professor of English at Fairfield University and has published articles in such journals as the Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, Renaissance Drama, and Renaissance Studies.