Hegel's Relationship to Shakespeare's Hamlet and Macbeth

Michael Geoffrey Salter (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

XVII, 432 Seiten

2026
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-032-09445-2 (ISBN)

Infos

This book explores how Hegel, who had studied Shakespeare first as a schoolboy and then continued to cite him throughout his academic career, responded to the challenges of extracting deep philosophical significance and previously unnoticed implications from this playwright's tragedies, especially Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and King Lear. More specifically, it addresses how Hegel interprets the contrast between the character Hamlet, as the first truly modern individual, with Macbeth, who was rooted in a superstitious mindset regarding witches' prophecies of his fate and the supernatural more generally. This contrast, Hegel argues, illustrates the transition from the ideological characteristic of a feudal social order to an early modern one, while illustrating the inner tensions and contradictions of the latter's extreme individualism with which we continue to grapple in today's world.

Hegel's Relationship to Shakespeare's Hamlet and Macbeth shows how Hegel employed Shakespeare s imaginary to delve into ideas of self-awareness, freedom, individuality and the recognition of human mortality and finitude. The book is essential reading for all scholars, researchers and advanced students of the thought of G.W.F. Hegel. It is also of interest to scholars of the work of William Shakespeare, especially those focussing on the tragedies.

Autor

Dr Salter is a professor within the School of Humanities' Department of Intercultural Communication (CUHK SZ) teaching Hamlet and other English literature and language courses. He has published five major monographs based on earlier research interests in interpretive-linguistic interests in war crimes trials and geopolitical issues arising from selective prosecution. He has taught at Birmingham, Ulster, Lancaster and Central Lancashire universities before taking up his present post in CUHK SZ in China. He has published over 50 book chapters/refereed publications, many of which concern Hegel's contribution to constitutional, semiotics and property scholarship, as well as Hegel's approach of immanent criticism as a vital stage of his wider model of critical and self-critical dialectical analysis. 

Inhalt

PART I: HEGEL S INTERPRETATION OF HAMLET ACHIEVEMENTS AND PROSPECTS.- Chapter 1: Introduction to Part One: Hegel s Interpretation Of Hamlet Achievements And Prospects.- Chapter 2: Hegel's Interpretation of Hamlet: An Overview of His Aesthetics Key Claims.- Chapter 3: Hegel Analysing Hamlet Contemplating Yorick s Skull.- Chapter 4: Prince Hamlet as Hegel s Beautiful Soul"?.- Chapter 5: Prince Hamlet as Hegel s "Subjective Idealist ?.- Chapter 6: Prince Hamlet as a Hegelian Unhappy Consciousness ?.- Chapter 7: A Hegelian Reading of Horatio Narrating Hamlet s Afterlife.- PART II: HEGEL ON MACBETH AND HAMLET.- Chapter 8: The Importance of Comparing Macbeth And Hamlet.- Chapter 9: Contrasting Macbeth s Responses to Witches and Hamlet s Reaction to the Ghost of Old Hamlet in Hegel s Phenomenology.- Chapter 10: Banquo s Ghost as Retributive Fate in Hegel s Early Thought.- Chapter 11: Controversies over the limits of Hegelian tragic reconciliation in Hamlet and Macbeth.- Chapter 12: Concluding Reflections.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheinungsdatum: 29.11.2025
• Zusatzinfo: XVII, 432 p. 1 illus.
• Verlagsort: Cham
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 148 x 210 mm
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie der Neuzeit
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
• Schlagworte: dialectical transitions • Hegelian interpretations of Shakespeare, • Hegel's analysis of Hamlet and Macbeth, • Shakespeare's significance for Hegelian scholarship • social philosophy of literature,
• ISBN-10: 3-032-09445-3 / 3032094453
• ISBN-13: 978-3-032-09445-2 / 9783032094452
• Zustand: Neuware