William Shakespeare

"The expression “mental illness” arises historically in the course of conversations about our human relational living, in an attempt to visualize some regularities that occurred in it, thinking that if we could grasp them we would be able to solve some difficulties that we were encountering in our living together, thinking that we could do so through formalizing them with some adequate theory that we would invent. However, to do that, we have to abstract those regularities in our living together first; we must respect ourselves accepting that naming is not a trivial aspect of what we do in our living: names have arisen in our history of living together as operational elements of coordination of our doings, and reveal regularities in that living."

Despite being recognized as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, Shakespeare is well known to have many problematic relationships to power that are extended into his texts. One example of this is patriarchy and his portrayal of women, and lack thereof. The Tempest is an example of this through Shakespeare's near total exclusion of women from the play. Miranda is the only women that ever appears in this play, and the only other one that is mentioned is Sycorax, who is dead long before the events of the play take place. This leaves limited options when examining gender relations within the play. The portrayal of Miranda serves as a good point of analysis as the only woman, however, particularly in her relationship to her father. Prospero, her father, is one of the major perpetrators of this, as he keeps her isolated and controls what she learns, which serves to maintain his power over her and the island. He uses many techniques of patriarchal abuse in order to keep this power dynamic upheld. On top of this all, Prospero also uses rhetorical objectification within his discussion of Miranda and planning of his future, as he seems to care little about her feelings or needs. These examples help us to understand how patriarchy pervades the play and shades our understanding of the characters within away from what Shakespeare and his audience may have perceived. Rather than the good, heroic wizard that audiences may have perceived him to be, I argue that these analyses prove that Prospero is not heroic, but abusive, controlling and hungry for power.

Prison is the site of control, discipline and surveillance where every subject is
strictly regulated under the ‘carceral timespace’. Prison theatre acts like the refuge for them
bringing imagination, fantasy and hope into the iron fetters. Theatre and prison are,
therefore, antithetical in the sense of theatre being about self-expression, lively
performance, and creative imagination while prison is the ‘total institution’, a space of
exhaustion of human liberty and agency. Still, the long, rich history of prison theatre
project suggests to the success of art in a disciplinarian setting. Shakespeare Behind Bars
(SBB) is a prison theatre project founded and directed by Curt Tofteland brings the eternal
socio-cultural significance of Shakespeare’s The Tempest to the inmates of Luther Luckett
correctional complex and provide them a unique space where they can rethink over their
past events of life, wicked self, trials and so on. However, a regeneration through a drama
performance is almost unattainable as the process signifies rebirth, erasure of past self and
events that constructs an individual. The Shakespearean text undeniably has the potential
to produce much conflict and confrontation especially in such authoritarian space for its
own expository nature. But most studies on Shakespeare prison theatre have been
empirical and descriptive based on this assumption of a priori that the prisoner will be
heavily influenced by the programme. The paper, therefore, would try to investigate how
a theatre performance particularly the SBB project of The Tempest could offer a path of
self-discovery to the inmates. Why Shakespeare as a dramatist is so significant there? If
the production is the adaptation of The Tempest, does it bear a new interpretation of the
original text or simply the urtext is eventually assimilated in the process?

Twelfth Night or What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare which was originated as an entertainment for the close of the Christmas season in 1601. The play expanded on the musical interludes expected on the occasion. Twelfth Night was written possibly in 1599 but it is dated usually in 1601. The first record of this play is found in the performance in 1603 at the Middle Temple. Shakespeare was most likely influenced by the Italian plays of his age. Written most likely after his comedies Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It and before the great tragedies Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear, this comedy of Shakespeare are considered to be the highest comic piece.

This article examines the ways in which Shakespeare and his contemporaries registered an extraordinary sensitivity to climatic conditions in England during the Little Ice Age (c. 1350-1850)--a period of longer winters, shorter growing seasons, and unpredictable changes in patterns of precipitation.

During the years 1963 to 1968 Anthony Burgess was living in Chiswick, West London. He moved there with his first wife Lynne the year after A Clockwork Orange was published, and stayed there for five years, writing 6 novels, 3 books of criticism and several translations. A few months after Lynne’s death in March 1968, Burgess left West London and England for good.
This period was a time of great creativity for Burgess. He wrote several novels, including his biographical novel about Shakespeare Nothing Like the Sun , thriller Tremor of Intent and the comic sequel Enderby Outside. He was also composing piano music at this time, and in 1968 he wrote the script, lyrics and music for an unmade Hollywood musical about Shakespeare, under the working title ‘The Bawdy Bard’. 
This paper assesses Burgess's contributions to Shakespeare biography and creative criticism, and explains the author's own indebtedness as a novelist to Burgess's example.

The Avignon Off and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival have a favourite Shakespearean play: Romeo and Juliet. Between 2011 and 2014, the play has been staged fourteen times at the Edinburgh Fringe and thirteen at the Avignon Off. This success can be owing to its status as a well-known love story, its popularity and its emblematic scenes. Among the abundance of productions, two main trends can be identified: whereas many of the productions at the Edinburgh Fringe are staged by amateur groups, professional companies re-write the play or use it as a point of departure at the Avignon Off. This chapter seeks to address how Romeo and Juliet allows for different approaches in these two alternative festivals and, at the same time, it looks for reasons that explain the popularity of the play in 21st-century popular culture.

Este artículo esboza algunas claves para pensar los procesos que configuran el ordenamiento corporal en las ciudades capitalistas. Indaga la relación entre cuerpos, estructura urbana y estructura social en dos configuraciones socio-espaciales particulares: la Venecia Shakesperiana y el Falansterio de Charles Fourier.  Primero, se retoman fragmentos de El Mercader de Venecia, enfatizando los modos en que el extrañamiento y la distancia social repercuten en (y son subsidiarios de) la configuración de los espacios reservados a esos cuerpos extraños recluidos dentro de los muros del ghetto judío. Seguidamente, se discute el proyecto del Falansterio, orientado a la reconfiguración del vínculo social sobre la base del placer y los deseos reprimidos por el imperio de la razón industrial de comienzos del siglo XIX.

This paper aims to revisit two of William Shakespeare's works: Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet in order to provide a feminist reading which examines his female characters further. As a Renaissance playwright, Shakespeare is fascinated by adding classical Greek elements in his own work; thus, he believes that tragedy is the epitome of literature and that beauty is to be idolized and sometimes feared. Combining both attributes, Shakespeare seems to be bewitched by killing most of his fair characters, especially women; to crown them as more impeccable, beautiful, and tragic. Using the concept of "angel of death," first scored by Alexander Welsh and further explained by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, this paper inspects and discusses the repetitive dramatized death of Shakespeare's most prominent beautiful female figures: Juliet and Ophelia.

This article reads the problem of trespass within William Shakespeare's King Lear.  I draw upon eighteenth-century jurist William Blackstone's notion of trespass, sixteenth-century jurist Jean Bodin's notion of sovereignty, in order to understand the question of property rights that emerges in Lear's abdication of his sovereignty.

One of the most dramatic moments in Shakespeare's Othello-in practically every conceivable sense of the word "dramatic"-is the episode in which the title character lapses into an apparent epileptic fit. Having been told by Iago that Desdemona has given Cassio the precious handkerchief that Othello considers the emblem of her purity, her fidelity, and their mutual love, Othello begins to lose any sense of secure self-possession. Suspecting Desdemona of sexual betrayal (Iago implies that Desdemona has been "lying" with Cassio and that Cassio has been literally "lying" on her), the Moor's rational self-control begins to collapse: Lie with her? lie on her? We say lie on her, when they belie her. Lie with her, zounds, that's fulsome.-Handkerchief! confessions! handkerchief!-To confess, and be hanged for his labour! First to be hanged, and then to confess: I tremble at it. Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some instruction. It is not words that shakes [sic] me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips. Is't possible? Confess! handkerchief! O devil! [He] falls in a trance. Othello, at this point, apparently loses consciousness-a fact that allows Iago to celebrate the way his own toxic verbal "medicine" has allowed him to poison Othello's mind and undermine the reputation of the virtuous Desdemona. When Cassio happens to arrive on the scene and sees the afflicted Othello, Iago explains what-supposedly-has happened: IAGO My lord is fall'n into an epilepsy; This is his second fit, he had one yesterday. CASSIO Rub him about the temples. IAGO No, forbear: The lethargy must have his quiet course, If not, he foams at mouth and by and by Breaks out to savage madness. (4.1.50-55) Iago hustles Cassio offstage as Othello begins to recover not only consciousness but self-awareness. This episode is one of the great set pieces in a play that brims with such moments. People who see the play on stage or watch it on film often wait, eagerly, to see just how this moment will be performed by both of the main actors. Stagings of this episode often typify the choices made by directors for entire productions. Assessments of the quality of particular renditions of the play often depend on how well and how (exactly) this episode is handled by all involved. The episode is fascinating, in part, because relatively few people have had any personal experience with epilepsy. Fewer than one percent of the current American population suffers from epilepsy (Shafer and Sirven). And, as I will show later, even this figure may be inflated. What, exactly, is epilepsy? What, precisely, are its causes? Is epilepsy in any way the result of emotional and psychological trauma? How was epilepsy understood in Shakespeare's day? How does our understanding of epilepsy affect our reactions to Othello, especially in this famous scene? How has this scene been staged in various important filmed versions of the play? These are the sorts of questions I hope to explore in the present essay.

Tracing connections between research methodologies and classroom practices in the study of Shakespeare and race, this essay argues for the importance of offering students’ opportunities to build and demonstrate expertise. The essay discusses the use of a glossary exercise in classes on race and early modern literature, and the learning objectives for such courses. Finally, the essay offers a critique of such courses as commonly structured and suggestions for new directions in teaching race in literature from this period.

A partir de The Avoidance of Love, de Stanley Cavell, e da obra de Shekespear King Lear faz-se uma reflexão sobre as ideias de amor, ignorância e (re) conhecimento. O problema do ser humano não é conhecer-se mas, quando esse auto-conhecimento se afigura inevitável, ultrapassar as consequências dessa fatalidade. Uma forma de o fazer é substituir o “knowledge” pelo “aknowledge”. O caminho para a felicidade far-se-ia “(re)conhecendo”, ao invés de “sabendo”. Não “reconhecer” impede o amor e conduz à tragédia.

El presente trabajo tiene como objeto un análisis de la obra The Taming of the Shrew de William Shakespeare poniendo énfasis en las relaciones de alteridad que se manifiestan entre los personajes, especialmente el que existe entre las hermanas Katherine y Bianca. La condición de outsider entre los personajes femeninos en las piezas de Shakespeare, según Marianne Novy, suele no ser fija, y eso se ve reflejado tanto en Katherine como en Bianca. Lo que este trabajo se propone es dejar de manifiesto que ese movimiento, de outsider a insider o viceversa, es performativo, es decir, que es el resultado de las acciones y no parte de la esencia, de la condición ontológica de los personajes.

[Full text in Link https://rdcu.be/brKbD or Ask for A Copy] This article examines the representations of the supernatural in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, which served as a significant source for later horror literature. It shows that the play’s rhetoric of horror and of the supernatural depends on its shifting discourse of nature. Nature in Macbeth refers to an external, nonhuman nature of cosmic events and elemental figures (air, bubble and fire) as well as to an internal, human nature of “horrid” images and surmises. Supernatural elements derive from the ontological instability in both external and internal nature, and relate particularly to those actions or events, through which nature becomes disturbed and duplicated. As the imaginary dagger scene indicates, the most terrifying source of the supernatural in the play is the human-made image that duplicates nature internally.

Literal or irreverent translations of the following passage from the prologue to Cervantes’s Novelas ejemplares:

[Y]o soy el primero que he novelado en lengua castellana, que las muchas novelas que en ella andan impresas todas son traducidas de lenguas estranjeras, y éstas son mías propias, no imitadas ni hurtadas: mi ingenio las engendró, y las parió mi pluma, y van creciendo en los brazos de la estampa.

This paper explores the role of "occasion" as a "Machiavellian" tool of political "practice" and "counter practice" in King Lear, and looks at the influence of Justus Lipsius' stoical concept of "constancy" as a countermeasure.

Throughout the decades, the efforts of making Shakespeare's plays more accessible through translation have often met with significant opposition. Translating plays from Elizabethan-era English to a more contemporary English is not without controversy and sometimes leads to heated debate flare-ups. This paper attempts to explore the ongoing debate through the lens of both education and performance, analyze both sides of the debate for their legitimacy, and offer possible approaches to Shakespeare's text in the realm of educating students and entertaining audiences.

So far, William Shakespeare's plays, mostly his tragedies, have proved themselves proper cases for psychoanalytic criticism, most of which have directly or indirectly been related to Sigmund Freud's theories. Basically, Ernest Jones's famous application of Freud's 'Oedipus Complex' on the character of Hamlet paved the way for other practitioners to read Shakespeare with a view to the unconscious, repression, id, ego, super ego, uncanny, etc., all of which were developed by Freud. However, as I believe, Shakespeare's plays have the flexibility and potential to be analyzed by other, more modern, psychoanalytic concepts, which at the same time review and amend some basic theories of Freud. I think, Julia Kristeva's notions regarding the symbolic, the semiotic and the abject, which arise out of the French psychoanalytic context, are applicable to many Shakespearean characters in general and Juliet in specific. Influenced by Lacan, Kristeva believes to enter the symbolic world of signification and establish an identity (subject or I) for itself, a little child, before the mirror stage, has to get rid of the semiotic (object), with which he/she has been accustomed so far. The little child does so by an unconscious process called abjection. In short, abjection is a psychical phenomenon in which what is deemed 'other' to oneself/subject is expelled. Some people make the mistake of comparing abjection with Freud's notions about the theory of repression; however, it should be kept in mind that what is abjected, unlike a repressed desire, does not entirely fade from consciousness. It remains as a semiconscious threat to an individual's subject. One point to consider here is that although the abjection process happens in the early childhood, it is a phenomenon that never entirely recedes and continues to haunt subjectivity as the subject (I) grows up. Therefore, in order to maintain and protect his own border of subjectivity, a person in different stages of his life has to be vigilant against anything that is potentially able to threaten his borders. When Juliet sees Romeo in Capulet party, she loses vigilance and falls in love. Touching Romeo's hands in the ballet dance, she experiences a good feeling, an enchanting sensation that unconsciously reminds her of a nowhere in the distant past. After knowing the masked dancer's identity, a Montague, with Capulets and Montagues at Feud, she has to make her choice: whether to obey the symbolic, which is associated with rule and law, here the law of the family, or abject it for the sake of a return to the semiotic. To establish an identity for herself, Juliet, in her pre-Oedipal state, abjected the semiotic in order to enter the real world. Juliet expelled the other a long time ago but the symbolic world she has entered so far is not as promising as she (unconsciously) supposed. The symbolic world that was supposed to put her in the realm of subjectivity and give her a distinct identity is forcing her to marry Paris, whom she does not love. As an adult, she is observing the

This essay examines a crucial historical moment in the evolution of how we understand and consider William Shakespeare. Britain’s movement to industrialization in the first half of the nineteenth century also gave rise to a number of organizations that championed and defended a new urban class of workers. Chief among these were the Chartists. In keeping with their political agenda, the Chartists also articulated a cultural reassessment of key British authors, especially Shakespeare, so as to employ literature as a means of challenging the ruling hegemony. In this formulation, Shakespeare was recast as, anachronistically, a republican and an advocate of working class issues (as well as members of the working classes themselves). This essay provides an analysis of Chartist cultural practices and examines some of the influences that helped shape the Chartist aesthetic. Particular emphasis is placed on how these considerations of Shakespeare’s political agenda led to an attempt to reconsider English/British national identity. It further explores how this recasting of Shakespeare has affected contemporary considerations of the playwright.

Shakespeare’s presence in contemporary culture is ubiquitous, yet his works seem to be tangled up in a sort of elitist, highbrow veneer, which teachers may struggle to brush off. As a consequence, educational practitioners often resort to rewritings, adaptations and appropriations of Shakespeare’s works in an attempt to reach their young audience. YouTube and other file-sharing platforms, such as Tumblr, Daily Motion and TED Talks, however, may prove extremely useful for designing new approaches to Shakespeare that rely on the manifold connections between the Bard and music. Accordingly, this essay proposes some teaching strategies drawing on hip-hop, rap and contemporary music to introduce Shakespeare's sonnets and plays in the classroom. Although it does not aim to provide an actual lesson plan, this essay explores some of the connections between the Bard and music that teachers may exploit. This may be done through warm-up, lead-in and wind-down activities, or through student-centred tasks. These affinities are investigated in both directions, from Shakespeare’s texts and contexts to music, and vice versa, paying specific attention to the work of the American poet Erik Didriksen and the British rapper Akala before dwelling on the role of music in "The Merchant of Venice".