Becoming Cleopatra: The Shifting Image of an Icon

Cleopatra is one of our icons of “exotic” femininity. Sexy, political, and racially ambiguous--since the time of Shakespeare she has been a central character in popular culture. And, more often than not, Cleopatra has been imagined as the epitome of dangerous female sexuality. Moving fluidly from Shakespeare's England to contemporary Los Angeles, Francesca Royster looks at the performance of race and sexuality in a wide range of portrayals of Cleopatra. Royster begins with Shakespeare's original appropriation of Plutarch, and then moves on to analyze performances of the Cleopatra icon by Josephine Baker, and the on screen performances of Elizabeth Taylor, Tamara Dobson ( Cleopatra Jones ), and Queen Latifah (in Set It Off ).

Francesca T. Royster is Associate Professor of English at DePaul University, where she writes and teaches courses on Shakespeare, film, and black feminism. She lives in Chicago.