Office and Duty in King Lear

Shakespeare's Political Theologies
Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-3-031-40159-6
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan

Buch, Englisch, 261 Seiten, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 356 g

Reihe: Palgrave Shakespeare Studies

This book advances five original readings of Shakespeare's  King Lear , influenced by Giorgio Agamben, but tempered by primary research into Jacobean literature, law, religion, and philosophy. To grasp  Lear ’s encounter between politics and identity, the play demands a wider understanding of the religious influence on political thought. As Lear himself realises, sovereignty is an extreme, glamorous example of a deeper category: sacred office.  Lear  also shows duty intersecting with a hierarchy of bastards, outlaws, women, waifs, and monks. This book introduces concepts like  petit treason , civil death, and waivery into political theological studies, complicating Agamben’s models. Goneril’s treason shows the sovereign’s consort and children are consecrated lives too. Lear’s crisis of "self-knowing" stages a landmark critique of office. The promise of his poignant speech before the prison is foreclosed by Shakespeare's invention: an officer dutifully murdering Cordelia. This book’s conclusion, through Hannah Arendt, reconsiders  Lear ’s persistent association with the Holocaust.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Thom, Alexander

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Deutsche Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Dramen und Dramatiker
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Strömungen & Epochen
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 Introduction.- 2 The Majesty of Kingship: Spectacular and Sacred Sovereign Power.- 3 “The Bloody Proclamation to Escape”: Edgar and Romantic Outlawry.- 4 Dividing Between Daughters.- 5 Lear’s Redemption.- 6 Conclusion: Lear’s Shadow, Office Today.- Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Dr Alexander Thom is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of English, University of Leeds, UK. His postdoctoral research focuses on the displaced in English Renaissance drama. This book is based on his Midlands3Cities AHRC doctorate, which was awarded in 2020 by the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK.