Hamlet as Existential Theologian (An Abstract)

When considering Shakespeare’s Hamlet, it is possible to examine the concept of ontological proof as a dominating catalyst for the construction of an existential truth. In looking at the processes by which existential truth is constructed, I want to focus specifically on Hamlet, in which I find that there are two prevalent approaches to ontological […]

“Logos” as “Techne”: The History of the Book in the World of the Shakespearean Tragedy

The book plays a significant and recurring role in the world of Shakespearean tragedy as a vehicle by which characters can be measured as either bookish or unbookish. This measure, by and large, is predicated on Shakespeare’s use and misuse of the book as a means of the creation of social knowledge: it is not […]

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 109

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 109 is onto-theologically preoccupied with “being there,” and predicates that kind of situatedness through the meaning of “being-here” and “being-away.” But, more importantly, as with H, this sense of “there-ness” is critical to how the sonnet develops meaning, either through the tangible aesthetic value in “being-here” or the transcendent phenomenological value in “being-away.” […]

The Trouble with Timon: Reading the Absurdity in Timon of Athens as Pseudo-Tragedy

Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens is, obviously, not the conventional tragedy, even if the fate of Timon is understandably tragic. So, what is it, then? When moved to divide Shakespeare’s body of work in terms of texts that can be clearly argued as comedy, history, sonnet, or tragedy, Timon of Athens is a peculiar anomaly, since […]

Choice, Puck, and Platonism

In A Midsummer’s Night Dream, reality and fantasy are two modes of existence situated across a dialectical plane of understanding. I think the term “plane of understanding” is essential to the Hegelian-like[1] relationship between reality and fantasy, since reality’s epistemological awareness of itself is grounded in an epistemological awareness of fantasy as an alternative mode […]

Demythologizing Othello’s Jealousy: Shakespeare’s Notion of Blackness and the Moorish Myth

Othello’s jealousy, as Mary Floyd-Wilson suggests in her article of the same name, is exemplified by a “suspicion [that] both distorts and augments the jealous man’s powers of observation” (Floyd-Wilson, 145). What becomes distorted and augmented, then, is Othello’s subjectivity in relation to the meaning of truth objectified in the act of observation. That truth, […]

“It is most lamentable to behold”: Performing Platonic Epistemology, the Death of Falstaff, and the Maturation of Prince Hal in three Henry Plays

In Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, Harold Bloom observes “…Henry V is clearly a lesser drama than the two parts of Henry IV. Falstaff is gone, and King Henry V, matured into the mastery of power, is less interesting than the ambivalent Prince Hal, whose potential more varied.” Though I am not normally inclined […]

“These fix’d evils sit so fit in him:” Sense and Reference in All’s Well That Ends Well

In Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, Harold Bloom suggests that All’s Well That Ends Well is fundamentally misunderstood from Samuel Johnson to the present—with, perhaps, Bloom included in that company.[1] Though such a broad, heavy-handed “sense” is common in Bloom’s eruditeness, it is certainly not too far afield when describing the play’s referential problems. […]

All Things Shakespeare

by Hue Woodson