-Résumé
The political questions that Shakespeare plays with, especially in light of
scepticism about the claims of established authorities, and in light of the
claims of justice in worlds of exploitation, oppression, and violence, are still
the questions of political theory. The problems that we meet in Shakespeare’s
dramas are wrestled with by thinkers associated with the developing tradition
of republicanism; by those who later developed and promoted the claims of
individual liberty and right that we associate with liberalism; by those who
focus on how to dismantle structures of exploitation and oppression and
achieve the egalitarian justice that we associate with modern socialism; and
by the feminist challengers of all forms of hierarchical, sex- or gender-based
authority whether conservative, liberal, republican, or socialist. The category
republican, and the rival ideas of monarchy, clearly and explicitly were meaningful
to Shakespeare.
The other three are more modern categories. The study of political thought focuses
on conceptual change—on how arguments about
authority, say, or sovereignty, cannot be presumed to be about exactly the
same thing across contexts and times.
But the claims of individuals against established social and political authorities;
the claims of women against men; and the opposing pulls of the egalitarian social justice later associated with socialism, and the established stable social order ever prized by conservatives, are puzzles that were recognizable to Shakespeare, and which turn up as themes, or as structures, in his plots.
I emphasize these problems as puzzles. My aim is absolutely not to ask why, for instance, Shakespeare falls short according to the lights of modern or post-modern feminism, or socialism, or theories of freedom.
The point of examining Shakespeare’s treatments of the puzzles of
political power is to ask why what seems to have made sense to him did make
sense, and to examine how it was that what evidently was taken for granted
was so, and why what are presented as problems are problems.
This is an important element of the method of critical theory as that has developed since the mid-twentieth century. It is also to take advantage of his undoubted sensitivity to power, and his insight into the paradoxes and puzzles of political rule.
The treatment of Shakespeare and politics here, then, is somewhat different from a good many scholarly and critical studies that can be gathered
under that heading. Much analysis of and commentary on the politics of
Shakespeare’s drama has focused on where the weight of his sympathy
lies—with the oppressed, exploited, but nevertheless potentially tumultuous,
claims-making people? Or with the claims of aristocratic fitness to rule, or of
divinely ordained sovereignty?
I try to emphasize the way that staging political dramas—about who should
rule, how they should rule, the justification of their rule, and the form their
rule takes (violence or agreement, occult power or open authority)—draws
theatre audiences and readers into debate.
Shakespeare’s plays are famously multi-vocal, and complicated; there is a great deal of noise in relation to signal; indeed, which is signal and which is noise is a problem that readers and audiences have to struggle with. Getting involved in a Shakespeare play, especially in performance, in a theatre surrounded by fellow audience members, takes us beyond images and pictures of power to involvement in interpretation, debate, contention, and judgement.
-Contents
Note on Texts and Citations ix
Introduction: Political Power and the Political Way 1
Politics and Politic in Shakespeare’s Drama 1
Shakespeare and the Political Way 6
Political Readings of Shakespeare’s Dramas 12
1. Political Power and Othello 17
Politics and Othello 17
Political Power and Social Divisions 23
Patriarchal Power 25
Politic Government 28
Sovereign Authority 29
Machiavellian Trickery 32
Public Speech 35
Othello and the Political Way 38
2. Political power and Measure for Measure 40
Politics in Measure for Measure 40
Of Government 50
Sexual Politics 52
Political Speech 55
Measure for Measure and the Political Way 61
3. Political and Military Power: Coriolanus 63
Coriolanus and Politics 63
Politics 69
Body Politic 76
Military Violence and the Political Way 88
4. Violence and Political Authority: Romeo and Juliet 89
Romeo and Juliet and Civil Power 89
Sovereign Power 94
Patriarchal Power 96
Machiavellian Strategy 98
Violence and Political Power 101
Gender and Commerce 105
Political Economy, Violence, and Emotion 109
5. Sovereignty, Justice, and Political Power: King Lear 110
Political Power and King Lear 110
Sovereignty and Regime Change 121
Sovereign and Social Violence 131
Politics, Emotion, and Justice 137
Violence, Passion, and the Political Way 143
6. Friendship and Justice: Merchant of Venice and Timon of Athens 144
Politics and Friendship 144
Politics, Friendship, and Timon of Athens 148
Economy, Friendship, and Justice in Merchant of Venice 152
Patriarchy and Resistance 156
State and Economy 162
Justice and Friendship 166
Political Economy and the Political Way 170
7. Politics and Magic: Macbeth and Tempest 171
Politics and Magic 171
Macbeth, Sovereignty, and Magic 177
The Tempest and Magic Rule 180
Magic and Politics 184
Theatrical Magic 191
8. Politics and Theatre: Hamlet 194
Political Theatre 194
Hamlet and Politics 198
Politics and Sovereignty 206
Patriarchy and Misogyny 210
Theatricality 216
Conclusion: The Political Way 220
References 225
Index 241
-caracteristiques
Date de parution : 10 septembre 2020
Éditeur : OUP Oxford
N.de page: 288 pages
ISBN-10 : 0198848617
ISBN-13 : 978-0198848615
Dimensions : 23.62 x 2.03 x 16 cm
Poids de l’article : 568 g
Langue : Anglais
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