Self-Speaking in Medieval and Early Modern English Drama
Author | : R. Hillman |
Publisher | : Springer |
Total Pages | : 320 |
Release | : 1997-05-30 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780230372894 |
ISBN-13 | : 0230372899 |
Rating | : 4/5 (899 Downloads) |
Download or read book Self-Speaking in Medieval and Early Modern English Drama written by R. Hillman and published by Springer. This book was released on 1997-05-30 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book documents the changing representation of subjectivity in Medieval and Early Modern English drama by intertextually exploring discourses of 'self-speaking', including soliloquy. Pre-modern ideas about language are combined with recent models of subject formation, especially Lacan's, to theorize and analyze the stage 'self' as a variable linguistic construct. Both the approach itself and the conclusions it generates significantly diverge from the standard New Historicist/Cultural Materialist narrative of subjectivity. Plays range from the Corpus Christi pageants to the Beaumont and Fletcher canon, with Shakespeare a recurrent focus and Hamlet, inevitably, the pivotal text.