Shakespeare and the Truth-Teller : : Confronting the Cynic Ideal / / David Hershinow.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Edinburgh University Press Complete eBook-Package 2019
• VerfasserIn: Hershinow, David,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2022]; ©2019
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Edinburgh Critical Studies in Shakespeare and Philosophy : ECSSP
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (264 p.)

Examines the early modern reception of classical Cynicism and the rise of literary realismPromotes a new understanding of the intersection between literary character and ethical character, especially with respect to literature’s role in facilitating belief in the revolutionary potential of individual critical agencyDeploys the reception history of Diogenes the Cynic as a methodological point of contact between historicist and presentist approaches to ShakespeareDraws new interdisciplinary connections between Shakespeare studies, literary theory, critical theory, and political philosophyIncludes novel readings of King Lear, Hamlet, and Timon of Athens as well as other early modern texts and a number of major works of modern philosophy and political theoryHighlighting the necessity of literary thinking to political philosophy, this book explores Shakespeare’s responses to sixteenth-century debates over the revolutionary potential of Cynic critical activity – debates that persist in later centuries and inform major developments in Western intellectual history. Analysing cynic characterisations of Lear’s Fool, Hamlet and Timon of Athens, Hershinow presents new ways of thinking about modernity’s engagement with classical models and literature’s engagement with politics.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE -- INTRODUCTION -- PART I OUR CYNIC LEGACY -- 1. Cynicism and the Courage of Truth -- 2. The Realist Turn: Parrhêsia, Character and the Limits of Didacticism -- PART II SHAKESPEARE’S CYNICS -- 3. Shakespeare’s Bitter Fool: The Politics and Aesthetics of Free Speech -- 4. Cynicism, Melancholy and Hamlet’s Memento Moriae -- 5. Cash is King: Timon, Diogenes and the Search for Sovereign Freedom -- Coda -- Bibliography -- Index