Causal Shakespeare / Eric Langley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Langley, Eric Francis, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. King Lear.

Shakespeare, William.

Causation.

Causation in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations

illustration

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2026]

Summary:

Taking 'King Lear' as its focus, this volume situates Shakespeare and his world-weary tragedy at the intersection of major epistemic trajectories in philosophical, religious, and scientific thought. Shakespeare's play, it argues, was produced at a crisis-point, a crux at which confidence in an older metaphysical order was being incrementally eroded, and was yet to be recuperated by the advent of the 'new' physics and later natural-scientific philosophies. Shakespeare writes, in short, at a moment of profound causal uncertainty. Consequently, 'King Lear' is shown to be a play riven by causal scepticism and deep-seated intellectual doubt, in which Shakespeare cycles through a rich array of classical analogues, philosophical influences, biblical sources, and literary intertexts, finding each unfit for the Machiavellian machinations and politic purposes of an incipient modern age.

Contents:

Introduction: is there any cause in nature …? Lear’s causal questions

What is a cause? Classical to early-modern aetiologies

It is the cause, it is the cause: causality before Lear

Introduction: let go the gods: Lear’s Senecan analogues

Bastards and Machiavels: self-motivation in King Lear [Act One]

What is the cause of thunder? Lear in the storm [Acts Two and Three]

The promised end? The consolations of causality [Acts Four and Five]

Epilogue: just causes: setting causes straight in Pericles.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (Oxford Academic, viewed on September 11, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version : Langley, Eric Francis. Causal Shakespeare.

ISBN:

9780197914311

0197914314

OCLC:

1601647699

Publisher Number:

CIPO000412011

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license