The dialectics of honour and shame in Middleton's The Changeling and contemporary Palestine.

This article follows the critical lines of new historicism, feminism, psychoanalysis and presentism so as to scrutinise the destructive practices of enforced marriage and turning a deaf ear to the female voice in Middleton's The Changeling and contemporary Palestine. The eclectic range of critics I am employing opens up gender-based readings in the teaching context of the Department of English Language and Literature at An-Najah University where I teach Renaissance Drama. In both the fictional world of The Changeling and in contemporary Palestine, tragedy ensues because male figures refuse to listen to female figures' voices and such aural closure to the female voice is a symptom of masculinity in crisis. I contend that female figures are active agents who can strengthen or weaken male figures' honour which is represented as a matter of public performance rather than an inherent signifier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]