Shakespeare Studies, Philosophy and World Literature

Authors

  • Zorica Bečanović Nikolić

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2014.6.5

Keywords:

Shakespeare studies, literature, experience, art, aesthetics, the demonic, freedom, power

Abstract

This paper presents introductory considerations of two new books of Shakespearean criticism: The Demonic. Literature and Experience by Ewan Fernie and Free Will. Art and Power on Shakespeare’s stage by Richard Wilson, both published in 2013, and both remarkable for encompassing Shakespeare studies, philosophy and world literature within their respective critical scopes. In The Demonic, Shakespeare is considered, along with Milton, Dostoevsky, Thomas Mann, Kierkegaard and other authors, in the context of demonic transgression, paradoxically close to the mystical knowledge of what is beyond self-experience. This book is an audacious step away from the current literary criticism in so far as it insists on responding to the crucial ontological and ethical questions by passionate spiritual engagement with art, literature and philosophy. In Wilson’s Free Will the focus is on Shakespeare’s demystification of the ruse of power, based on both truthful experience and careful performance of nonentity, which produced a specific form of early modern creative autonomy. Free Will is as provocative as The Demonic because it mediates, directly or indirectly, awareness of the aporetic nature of weakness and power – of the weakness of power and the power in weakness.

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Published

2014-11-23

How to Cite

Bečanović Nikolić, Z. (2014). Shakespeare Studies, Philosophy and World Literature. Belgrade English Language and Literature Studies, 6(1), 83–103. https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2014.6.5

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2014): BELLS - volume 6

Section

SHAKESPEARE: LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Zorica Bečanović Nikolić

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