Shakespeare's identities : psychological & mythic perspectives / James P. Driscoll, Ph.D.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Driscoll, James P., 1946- author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Standardized Title:

Identity in Shakespearean drama

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Characters.

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Symbolism.

Symbolism.

Identity (Psychology) in literature.

Archetype (Psychology) in literature.

Characters and characteristics.

Physical Description:

xviii, 364 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Washington : Academica Press, [2019]

Summary:

No dramatist has treated identity in as many ways and in such depth as William Shakespeare. In Shakespeare's Identities, James P. Driscoll shows how the Bard used history, comedy, tragedy, and romance to develop comprehensive treatments of personal identity. Driscoll's innovative study examines four aspects of identity: the conscious, social, real, and ideal. Drawing on Jungian psychoanalysis, Driscoll explores how Shakespeare's plays dramatize a crucial need for self-knowledge and foreshadow larger identity issues. Sexual identity and the archetype of the outcast provide new perspectives on The Merchant of Venice. Hamlet's quest for self-knowledge mirrors parallel quests that Jung found mythic heroes pursuing. Iago shrewdly exploits Othello's racial outcast status and confused conscious and social identities to convince him that Desdemona's real identity has changed. In Twelfth Night, as in the other romantic comedies, family, relationships, love, friendship, imagination, disguise, and time and place all shape identity. Measure for Measure is a profoundly political drama showing the interdependence of love and knowledge in the quest to understand real identity and achieve ideal identity. King Lear treats identity both archetypally and realistically to create a uniquely powerful tragic vision of the self and divinity. From Falstaff to Shylock, Hamlet, Othello, Iago, Lear, and Prospero Driscoll offers original insights and perspectives on Shakespeare's most fascinating characters. This new volume will hold great interest for students of Shakespeare and all English literature, along with all those concerned with the enduring issues of identity.

Contents:

Introduction to new edition

Retrospect

Introduction to the first edition: Identity in Shakespearean drama

Identity and history

Outcast identities in The merchant of Venice

Hamlet's quest for self-knowledge

Change in Othello

Time redeems identity in Ilyria

Measure for measure : moral authority and ideal identity

The vision of King Lear

The Shakespearean "metastance"

Character and identity : some critical perspectives

Integrity and madness in The Duchess of Malfi.

Notes:

Originally published as Identity in Shakespearean drama by Bucknell University Press in 1983.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9781680532104

1680532103

OCLC:

1126380279

Publisher Number:

99983923413