Shakespeare's Hamlet and the Controversies of Self

by John Lee

Overview

This book offers a new approach to the discussion of English Renaissance literary subjectivity. Dissatisfied with much New Historicist and Cultural Materialistic criticism, it attempts to trace the history of the controversies of self. William Hazlitt emerges as a pioneering figure in a tradition of literary criticism which this book tries to advance. Drawing on the personal construct theory of George A. Kelly, and on the moral theory of Alasdair MacIntyre, the textual ways are traced by which "That within" Hamlet is constructed. In an argument that challenges some of the founding propositions of New Historicist and Cultural Materialist practice, the Prince is seen to have a self-constituting, as opposed to a self-fashioning, sense of self. This sense of self is neither essentialist nor transhistorical; using the work of Charles Taylor, the play is seen to be exploring a Montaignesque, as opposed to Cartesian, notion of subjectivity. The controversies of self are, in fact, an issue within Shakespeare's play; and if the notion of Folio and Quarto Princes is allowed, it may even be at issue within the play. Hamlet debates our debate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198185048
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/14/2000
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 5.80(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

John Lee is Lecturer in English, University of Bristol

Table of Contents

Introduction12. Fear and Wonder3. Something More than Fantasy4. Fools of Nature5. A Wave o' th' Sea6. My Tables, My Tables7. A King of Infinite Space8. The Princes HamletBibliographyIndex

Editorial Reviews

"John Lee provides a fascinating, sometimes furious, sometimes funny account of recent academic battles over the bard.... Lee's pen is as sharp as his mind and he almost revives some of the old battles as he tells his story. At the same time, by focusing on the battles over one play, Hamlet, Lee burrows deeper and deeper into the reasons Shakespeare matters."—The Providence Journal

"Lee's artfully constructed book is valuable for its account of the history and development of early and contemporary criticism, but is also has many penetrating comments on [Hamlet], going to the heart of some of its most irresolvable problems."—Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher