Shakespearean Pragmatism: Market of His TimeUniversity of Chicago Press, 15 de nov. 1993 - 266 pàgines Just as Shakespeare's theater was an economic gamble, subject to the workings of a market, so the plays themselves submit actions, persons, and motives to an audience's judgment. Such a theatrical economy, Lars Engle suggests, provides a model for the way in which truth is determined and assessed in the world at large—a model much like that offered by contemporary pragmatism. To Engle, the problems of worth, price, and value that appear so frequently in Shakespeare's works reveal a playwright dramatizing the negotiable nature of perception and belief—in short, the nature of his audience's purchase on reality. This innovative argument is the first to view Shakespeare in the context of contemporary pragmatism and to show that Shakespeare in many ways anticipated pragmatism as it has been developed in the thought of Richard Rorty, Barbara Herrnstein Smith, and others. With detailed reference to the sonnets and plays, Engle explores Shakespeare's tendency to treat knowledge, truth, and certainty as relatively stable goods within a theatrical economy of social interaction. He shows the playwright recasting kingship, aristocracy, and poetic immortality in pragmatic terms. As attentive to history as it is to contemporary theory, this book mediates between current and traditional accounts of Shakespeare. In doing so, it offers a sweeping new account of Shakespeare's enterprise that will interest philosophers, literary theorists, and Shakespeare scholars alike. |
Continguts
Certainty and Uncertainty in the Sonnets | 27 |
Dramatic Pragmatism in Hamlet | 54 |
Money and Moral Luck in The Merchant of Venice | 77 |
Who Pays in the Henriad? | 107 |
The Politics | 147 |
Nobility the Market and the Moral Economy | 164 |
Coda | 225 |
Frases i termes més freqüents
action agency Antony and Cleopatra argue argument attempts Aufidius autonomy Bassanio belief Caesar certainty chapter Chaucer Christian claims contemporary context contingency Coriolanus Coriolanus's criticism Cromwell cultural debt desire discourse discussion English erotic evaluation exchange Falstaff father Fish gestures gods Hal's Hamlet hath Henry Henry IV Herrnstein Smith historical homosocial Horatian Ode Hotspur human idea intellectual Jacob kind Knight's Tale literary lord Machiavellian male means Menenius Merchant of Venice Midsummer Night's Dream Miller's Tale modern moral economy Moral Luck nobility noble offers Ophelia Pandarus particular philosophic play play's plebeians poems poetry political Portia pragmatism pragmatists praise Prince redescribe redescription relation Renaissance Richard Rorty Roman Rome scene seems sense Shakespeare Shakespeare's Sonnets Shylock social speech structures suggests Tamburlaine theater thee theory thing thou tion Troilus and Cressida truth Ulysses Unger vocabulary Volumnia