Document Type : علمی - پژوهشی
Authors
1 IAU, Tehran Central Branch
2 Shahid Beheshti University
Abstract
Madness and its manifestations have long been one of the themes treated and diversely depicted in literary works. Shakespeare is among the many authors who have represented this phenomenon in a number of his tragedies through the creation and introduction of a few complicated outstanding characters. His treatment of this issue, according to many critics, is innovative and far from conventional and traditional notions; thus this phenomenon and those who are affected by it can be viewed and analyzed in the light of contemporary theories. Shakespeare particularly creates a peculiar language for the insane personages, which reflects their state of mind and becomes their common feature. In this article, the discourse of four such characters in three major Shakespearean tragedies – Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth – will be discussed in the light of Julia Kristeva’s linguistic theories regarding the semiotic and symbolic dispositions with the assumption that the discourse of madness in these plays is an outcome of the emergence of semiotic features in the symbolic disposition.
Keywords
- Becker-Lecrone, Megan. 2005. Julia Kristeva and Literary Theory. London: Palgrave: Macmillan.
- Calbi, Maurizio. 2006. Approximate Bodies: Gender and Power in Early Modern Drama and Anatomy. New York: Taylor & Francis e-Library, Routledge.
- Charney, Maurice and Hanna Charney. 1977. âThe Language of Mad Women in Shakespeare and His Fellow Dramatists.â Sings, Vol. 3. No. 2. 451-460. JSTOR. Web. 14 July 2017.
- Chen, Yi-Chi. 2011. âPregnant with Madness: Opheliaâs Struggle and Madness in Hamlet.â Intergrams. Web. 30 April 2016. 4.
- Dingwall-Jones, Christopher. 2014. ââAntic dispositions?â The Representations of Madness in Modern British Theatre.â Diss. University of Kent. Web. 30 April 2016.
- Foucault, Michel. History of Madness. 2006. Ed. Jean Khalfa. Trans. Jonathan Murphy and Jean Khalfa. London and New York: Routledge.
- The History of Sexuality, Vol.1: An Introduction. 1978. Trans. Robert Hurley. New York: Pantheon Books. 7.
- Hobbs, Kathryn. âThe Anatomy of Madness: Ophelia and the Body.â Web. 27 April. 2016.8.
- Kristeva, Julia. 1980. Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art. Ed. Leon S. Roudiez. Trans. Thomas Gora, Alice Jardine, and Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press.
- ---. Revolution in Poetic Language. 1984. Trans. Margaret Waller. New York: Columbia University Press.10.
- ---. Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia. 1989. Trans. Leon S Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press.11.
- ---. Tales of Love. 1987. Trans. Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press.12.
- ---. 13. The Sense and Non-sense of Revolt: The Powers and Limits of Psychoanalysis. 2000. Trans. Jeanine Herman. Vol.1. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Lacan, Jacques. Ãcrits: A selection. 2005. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London and New York: Routledge. 14.
- Laing, R. D. 1965. The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness. London: Penguin Books.15
- Lechte, John. 1994. Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers from Structuralism to Postmodernity. London and New York: Routledge.
- Lyotard, Jean-Francois. 1984. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Trans. Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- McAfee, Noelle. 2004. Julia Kristeva. London and New York: Routledge.18.
- Neely, Carol Thomas. 1991. âDocuments in Madness: Reading Madness and Gender in Shakespeareâs Tragedies and Early Modern Culture.â Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 42. No. 3: 315-338. JSTOR. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
- Payne, J. F. 2004. âJorden, Edward (d. 1632)â. rev. Michael Bevan. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press. Web. 16 Feb 2017.
- Riemer, A. P. 1993. âTroubled Speech: The Representation of Madness in Renaissance Drama.â Sydney Studies in English. Vol. 19: 21-30. Web. 29 April 2016.
- Roder, Caroline. 2007. âInvading the Body: Sound and (Non-)Sense in King Lear.â Shakespeare Seminar Online. Issue 5. N. pag. Web. 26 May 2016.
- Rosenberg, Marvin. 1972. The Masks of King Lear. London and Toronto: Associated University Press, 23.
- Roudiez, Leon S. Introduction. 1980. .Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art. By Julia Kristeva. Ed. Leon S. Roudiez. Trans. Thomas Gora, Alice Jardine, and Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press. 1-20.
- ---. 25. Introduction. 1984. Revolution in Poetic Language. By Julia Kristeva. Trans. Margaret Waller. New York: Columbia University Press.. 1-11.
- William Shakespeare. Hamlet. 1997. Ed. Ramji Lall. 10thed. New Delhi: Rama Brothers. 26.
- ---. King Lear. 1997. Ed. Ramji Lall. 10thed. New Delhi: Rama Brothers. 27.
- ---. Macbeth. 1996. Ed. Rajinder Paul. 6thed. New Delhi: Rama Brothers.28.
- Schalkwyk, David. 2002. Speech and Performance in Shakespeareâs Sonnets and Plays. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Scholz, Susanne. 2000. Body Narratives: Writing the Nation and Fashioning the Subject in Early Modern England. Houndmills and New York: Palgrave/St. Martin's Press.
- Schulthies, Michela. 2015. âLady Macbeth and Early Modern Dreaming.â M. A. Thesis. Utah State University.31.
- Showalter, Elaine. 1985. âRepresenting Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism.â 77-94 in Shakespeare and the Question of Theory, Patricia Parker and Geoffrey Hartman. New York: Taylor and Francis.
- Smith, Anne-Marie. 1998. Julia Kristeva: Speaking the Unspeakable. London: Pluto Press.33.
- ---. â34. Transgression, Transubstantiation, Transference.â 130-138 in The Kristeva Critical Reader, John Lechte and Zournazi, eds. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Wenzel, Peter. 2010. âWord and Action in the Mad Scenes of Shakespeareâs Tragedies.â 141-155 in William Shakespeare: Tragedies, Harold Bloom. New York: Bloomâs Literary Criticism.
- Widawsky, Rachel. 2014. âJulia Kristevaâs Psychoanalytic Work.â Journal of American Psychoanalytic Association. 62.1: 61-67.
)