SoSe 15: The Hamlet Myth in Modernism
Claudia Olk
Kommentar
There are few plays that have exerted such pervasive influence on 20th century thought, art and criticism as Shakespeare's Hamlet. In this course we will study the play itself and examine some of the most prominent interpretations of Hamlet that partake in the creation and sustenance of what comes close to a Hamlet-myth. Hamlet's apparent haunting quality far exceeds that of most dramatic figures. Not only is he held as one of the most autobiographical of Shakespeare's characters, but the fascination he has inspired over the centuries also lies in his many and mostly contradicting features: at once a scholar, a sceptic, the prototype of the modern intellectual, he also presents himself as an actor and a fool. Criticism has dwelled on these characteristics in which he appears as a Renaissance man in a medieval setting of primeval murder and revenge, where he is torn between his adherence to filial duties and his doubt and delay.
In examining critical encounters with Hamlet, we will also look at political interpretations of the play during the interwar years, many of which concern the link between aesthetics and ideology in England and Germany. Finally, we will study artistic responses to Hamlet from Joyce to Stoppard.
Texts: We will work with the New Cambridge Edition of Hamlet. Students must have read the play before the beginning of the course. Furthermore we will study Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, as well as Dogg's Hamlet; Cahoot's Macbeth.
A reader of criticism will be provided at the beginning of the semester
. Schließen14 Termine
Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung