After some initial research I have a nice little list of sources to begin studying more thoroughly. One source seems pretty interesting so far: "At the Edge of the Modern, or Why is Prospero Shakespeare's Greatest Creation," by William Benzon (Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 259-279, 1998)
Here is a piece of the abstract:
"By looking at his career through modern studies of adult development, we can see that the shift from one genre to another follows the reorganization of Shakespeare's psyche. The ultimate fruit of that development is Shakespeare's final play, The Tempest, whose protagonist, Prospero, has managed to integrate those aspects of himself which had been in conflict in earlier plays. If we then place Shakespeare's career in a broader psycho-historical context we can see how he helped make the modern nuclear family psychologically possible."
It looks like Benzon attempts to chart the development of Shakespeare's psyche throughout his career through an analysis of his characters. The full article is available through the link above. I'm still in search mode so I haven't read the full article yet but it looks like an interesting approach and one that should help me with my focus.
No comments:
Post a Comment