Much Ado About Polyamory

About this episode

This episode explores the concept of polyamory through the lens of Shakespeare's comedies.

These days, everyone seems to be talking about polyamory-- the practice of engaging simultaneously in more than one romantic and/or sexual relationship, with the full consent of everyone involved. According to a recent study, 1 in 9 Americans has tried polyamory, and 1 in 6 would like to try it. This got us wondering: Could people in Shakespeare's day have known about and experienced anything resembling what we now identify as polyamorous desires and lifestyles? In this episode, we take a deep dive into two of Shakespeare's cross-dressing comedies, As You Like It and Twelfth Night , to explore some potential polyamory prototypes.

People in this episode

Hosts: Caroline Bicks, Michelle Ephraim

Topics covered

• polyamory
• Shakespeare
• romantic relationships
• cross-dressing comedies
• historical perspectives

Keywords

• polyamory
• Shakespeare
• As You Like It
• Twelfth Night
• romantic relationships
• cross-dressing
• comedy

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Much Ado About Polyamory, As You Like It, Twelfth Night

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