Unhae Langis - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Education
BA English Yale 1984, Maitrise U of Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle)1988, M Ed UCLA 1990, MA English UC Irvine 1995, PhD USC (U of Southern CA) 2008

Research Interests
Shakespeare, early modern drama, Renaissance literature

I like to explore the interactivity between self and others, body and environment, citizen and state in terms of moral agency, virtue, prudence, focusing on various nexus: mind-body, cognition-emotion, emotion-motion). Through the lens of eudaimonism (personal and civic flourishing), I also examine the common ground between various traditions of wisdom and philosophy, especially Aristotelian ethics (Nicomachean Ethics), Stoicism, Skepticism, Buddhism.

Education
Ph.D. University of Southern California English Literature 2008
M.A. University of California, Irvine English Literature 1995
M.Ed. University of California, Los Angeles English Education 1990
Maîtrise University of Paris, Sorbonne Nouvelle Literary translation 1988
B.A. Yale University, magna cum laude English 1984

Publications
Passion, Prudence, and Virtue in Shakespearean Drama. New York: Continuum Books, 2011.
Information and preview: http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=157660&SubjectId=1020&Subject2Id=1387

Abstract: Virtue, as a Renaissance ideal, was largely conceived as a rational governing of unruly passions. Revising this early modern commonplace, my study shows how Shakespeare dramatizes a discerning Aristotelian conception of virtue as a touchstone of excellence: executing just action at the right time, in the right way, and for the right end within the contingent world. Not only situational, Aristotelian virtue is, moreover, integrative, harmonizing passion and reason, will and understanding, towards personal and civil good. Yet as a surprising backfire on the misogynist streak in Aristotle, the resistant female characters in Shakespeare emerge as the exemplars of ethical action, appropriating traditionally male-inflected virtue. At the junction of ethical criticism, historical phenomenology, and extended mind studies, this approach of prudential psychology bridges an apparent but needless divergence of critical focus between affect and cognition, ethics and prudential action. Firmly situated in new historicist practices, prudential psychology goes beyond discourses of power into the all-encompassing arena of virtue as the complete life, which recommends an equally interdisciplinary approach for a fuller understanding of Shakespeare’s works.

“The Aesth/ethics of Imagination and Deceit in Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation: A Foucauldian-Aristotelian Reading,” Pivot 1 (2011). http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/pivot/article/viewFile/32160/29379

“Shakespeare and Prudential Psychology: Ambition and Akrasia in Macbeth.” Shakespeare Studies, Special Issue: Shakespeare and Moral Agency (forthcoming 2012)

“Usury and Political Friendship in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice,” Upstart Crow [23 mss. pages; 2012]

“Virtue, Justice, and Moral Action in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.” Literature and Ethics: From the Green Knight to the Dark Knight. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010. 53-75.

"Coriolanus: Inordinate Passions and Powers in Personal and Political Governance." Comparative Drama 44.1 (2010): 1-27. See "Papers" for hyperlink.

“The Role of the Intellectual: Shakespeare’s Exploration of Contemplative Life vs. Active Life in The Tempest.” The Intellectual: A Phenomenon in Multidimensional Perspectives. Inter-Disciplinary.net, 2010. Web. 22 July 2010.

“Virtuous Viragos: Female Heroism and Ethical Action in Shakespeare.” Literature Compass 7.6 (2010): 397-411.

“Idleness, Leisure, and Virtuous Activity in Shakespearean Drama.” Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference 2 (2009): 1-16. https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1014&context=spovsc

“Marriage, the Violent Traverse from Two to One in Taming and Othello.” Journal of the Wooden O Symposium 8 (2009): 45-63.

“Fate.” Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Facts on File, 2010.

“Pride.” Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Facts on File, 2010.

“Shakespeare’s Cleopatra as Virtuous Virago.” Genre: Women, Sexuality, a

less