"'A Spacious Mirror': Interpellation and the Other in Antony and Cleopatra." Sample Chapter from Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic (Edinburgh UP, 2019). (original) (raw)
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An Apology for Antony. Morality and Pathos in Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra"
Taking off from a consideration of Antony and Cleopatra’s intermingling of pathetic and moral tragedy, the analysis proposed in the present essay demonstrates how the play’s peculiar combination of morality and pathos results in a dialectical critique of both concepts of the tragic. Shakespeare didn’t write a straight-forward pathetic tragedy, in fact Antony and Cleopatra questions this very phenomenon from the perspective of the tragicomic Christian theatrum mundi. At the same time, however, the play inverts not only moral tragedy, but also the moral design — the ‘exemplary’ story of the great Mark Antony’s downfall through moral corruption — that Shakespeare inherited from Roman historiography through Plutarch’s Life of Antony, Medieval historiography, and Renaissance emblematics. In contrast to the recent critical negligence of the moral aspect of the play, as well as the overemphasis on this aspect in the early criticism of the play, the analysis proposed emphazises the dialectic of moralism and pathos in Shakespeare’s play. The fundamental ambiguity permeating Shakespeare’s characterization of Antony as a tragic hero is not only seen to affect the understanding of this particular play, but also, by implication, to question the notion of Shakespeare as a modern dramatist and the view of Renaissance drama as an unequivocal break with the medieval dramatical heritage.
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Antony and Cleopatra: A Study of Narcissism
1998
ABSTRACT Antony and Cleopatra: A Study of Narcissism Maria-Louise Rowley In Antony and Cleopatra: A Study of Narcissism, I examine Shakespeare's astute portrayal of these two character in view of psychoanalytical theories of narcissism. Harold Bloom has cited Shakespeare as the real father of psychoanalysis. I believe that this psychoanalytical inquiry into the motivations of Antony and Cleopatra throughout the themes of passion, sexual obsession and deceit in the play confirms Bloom's statement. In this paper I explore Shakespeare's portrayal of Antony and Cleopatra in light of Freudian and more recent writing on narcissism, specifically the work of Heinz Kohut. By looking at the manifestations of grandiosity, fluctuations in self-esteem, and the quest for an omnipotent, idealized self-object, I examine how both characters develop along the parallel narcissistic lines of subject-bound narcissism, or the grandiose self, as exhibited by Cleopatra, and object-bound narcissism, or the pole of the idealized parent imago, as evidenced by Antony. I also address the question of narcissism versus transference neurosis in Antony's behaviour, particularly with respect to Caesar and ‘father Rome.’ From here I invert the observations into the question: How might these traits affect or influence their behaviour? Finally, I examine the eros/thanatos theme in light of narcissism and look at how Antony and Cleopatra's behaviour reflects or comments on the larger issues in the play.
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THE QUEST FOR CULTURAL SURVIVAL IN ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Motif Akademi Halkbilimi Dergisi, 2021
In Antony and Cleopatra, William Shakespeare highlights the cultures of the East and the West. The play reveals the quest for cultural survival between the East and the West as a major factor that stirs cultural complexities. The unrighteous representation of the Eastern culture shows the complex nature of multiculturalism the canonical writers strove to represent in their writings. This study seeks to substantiate the challenges that confront cultural expressions in the multicultural atmosphere Shakespeare highlights in Antony and Cleopatra, as well as how the minority culture shapes this context of cultural plurality. Similarly, a comparative analysis of Cultural Studies, cultural history, cultural identity, cultural 'contents,' and the literary work Antony and Cleopatra will be the subject matter in this study. Moreover, the goal of this study is to examine how Shakespeare promotes Western culture through the adoringly and adorningly illustrated West with a blemished and contemptuous portrayal of the East in his play. Comparatively, we examine how Shakespeare evinces the triumvirs as the powerful three (Antony, Caesar and Lepidus) and, on the other hand, how he associates Cleopatra with the East.
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British and American Studies, 2022
Through a close examination of the notion of friendship and its intimate connection to politics, the present study aims to discover the intricate ways in which friendship is portrayed in relation to virtue, enmity, and politics in one of Shakespeare’s most politically-charged tragedies, “Julius Caesar”. With a systematic reading of the ancient inquiries on friendship, the study particularly investigates the Shakespearean idea of friendship through the Derridean dichotomy of the friend and its inevitable bond to the enemy. Keywords: Cicero, Derrida, friendship, politics, Shakespeare
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