Unwriting Susanna Hall

The lives of Anne, Susanna and Judith Shakespeare are (re)written in biographies of Shakespeare, where they occupy stereotypically negative roles: the predatory Anne, the prudish Susanna, the unmarriageable Judith. Fictional portrayals go to the other extreme, presenting capable women frustrated by gender expectations. In this collaborative panel, we unwrite negative and positive stereotypes, looking anew at documentary evidence and alternative narratives. We also unwrite these women as rivals, using our own collaboration to reflect on theirs, and on our methodology more generally. Playing on the conference theme of “Shakespeare’s Writing Lives”, we ask what’s at stake in writing a life, when multiple lives are both possible and plausible. In ‘Unwriting Susanna’, I unpick three stitches of her story: her slander case, her ‘good’ signature, and her negotiations over the sale of her husband’s documents.