A Crack in the Shell: Reading a Few Lines from King Lear
A Crack in the Shell: Reading a Few Lines from King Lear
Author(s): Tadeusz SławekSubject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Other Language Literature
Published by: Instytut Anglistyki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: William Shakespeare;King Lear;violence and justice
Summary/Abstract: The article takes up the theme of Agamben’s violence without a form of justice and reads Shakespeare’s tragedy as spanned between Cordelia’s “nothing” at the start of the play and Lear’s “never” at its end. It also approaches a question of the relationship between, in Rousseau’s word, “l’homme naturel” and “citoyen.” Lear’s push towards a position of being “unaccommodated” suggests a move away from the organization of life previously holding its rule over men towards a marginal, peripheral zone with uncertain rules where man has to risk his own decisions rather than merely follow the custom.
Journal: ANGLICA - An International Journal of English Studies
- Issue Year: 25/2016
- Issue No: 3
- Page Range: 11-36
- Page Count: 26
- Language: English