Shakespeare & Literary Theory (Paperback - 2012)

How is it that the British literary critic Terry Eagleton can say that 'it is difficult to read Shakespeare without feeling that he was almost certainly familiar with the writings of Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Wittgenstein and Derrida'? Shakespeare and Literary Theory argues that literary theory is less an external set of ideas anachronistically imposed on Shakespeare's texts than a mode—or several modes—of critical reflection inspired by his writing. To name just a few examples: psychoanalytic theorists from Sigmund Freud to Jacques Lacan have explained some of their most axiomatic positions with reference to Hamlet; Jacques Derrida's deconstructive philosophy is articulated in dialogue with Shakespeare's plays; and French feminism's best-known essay is Helene Cixous's meditation on Antony and Cleopatra. By reading what theoretical movements have had to say about Shakespeare, we can begin to get a sense of how much the DNA of contemporary literary theory contains a startling abundance of chromosomes that are of Shakespearian provenance.

Jonathan Gil Harris is Professor of English at George Washington University.