Language and Translation Studies (LTS)

Beyond Gender: Disabling Systems, Truth, and Disguise in Shakespeare’s Heroines

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Faezeh Rostami 1
Sara Khazai 2

1 Ferdowsi University of Mashhad,, MA Graduate

2 استادیار دانشگاه فردوسی مشهد

https://doi.org/10.22067/lts.2026.97945.1427
Abstract
While feminist literary criticism has extensively examined gendered perspectives in Shakespeare’s works, not much attention has been given to how disability studies might reframe such analyses through its critique of normalcy and stigma. This study places feminist criticism and disability studies in direct dialogue by examining four Shakespearean heroines—Katherina (The Taming of the Shrew), Desdemona (Othello), Hermione (The Winter’s Tale), and Portia (The Merchant of Venice). The article introduces the concept of metaphorical disability to demonstrate how gender can function as a disabling system within patriarchal structures. The heroines’ responses are examined as strategic negotiations between truth and disguise. Desdemona and Hermione choose truth and suffer exclusion, while Katherina and Portia adopt forms of performative conformity to survive. Integrating disability studies into Shakespearean analysis enables a more structurally grounded and intersectional understanding of stigma, Othering, and narrative consequence.

Keywords

disability studies
feminist criticism
normalcy
metaphorical disability
Shakespeare
Subjects
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Language and Translation Studies (LTS)

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 23 June 2026

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