Shakespeare, the Reformation and the Interpreting Self - (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Shakespeare and Philosophy) by Roberta Kwan (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

We share with Shakespeare, it seems, the assumption that to be human is to be an interpreter of oneself, others and the world - seeking but not always arriving at understanding. Shakespeare, the Reformation and the Interpreting Self explores this perspective on human subjectivity. This study reads the complex, compelling representations of the self as an interpreter (and misinterpreter) of reality in Shakespeare's 'problem plays' alongside an intellectual history that links the culture-shaping theological hermeneutics of the playwright's day to the similarly influential philosophical hermeneutics of our times. What is it to be an interpreting self? This book's critical approach brings to the fore questions about the self's finitude, agency, motivations, self-knowledge and ethical relation to others, questions that were of great relevance in Shakespeare's England and which continue to resonate in our present-day dilemmas and debates about human experience and human being.

Review Quotes

Shakespeare, the Reformation and the Interpreting Self is a powerfully argued and meticulously demonstrated account of the ways in which the Protestant Reformation redefined the prevailing notions of the self. This work is adept in its detailed referencing of a "hermeneutic revolution", the sweeping religious, social and intellectual changes ushered in by the Reformation and its theological thinkers. The human individual as interpreting self is given rigorous theological focus through the ideas of Calvin, and Luther, among others; socially, in the changing forces of British religious and cultural life and institutions; and in Shakespeare's writings, where Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, Measure for Measure, and All's Well that Ends Well are analysed for their complex understandings of characters as interpreting selves.-- "AUHE Prize for Literary Scholarship 2023"

Roberta Kwan's considered, deeply informed and lively book shows the act of interpretation, and the condition of hermeneutical uncertainty, to be central to works of drama emerging in an age passionately divided over the question "how can we know?" A fine contribution to literary criticism and to studies of religion.--Peter Holbrook, Australian Catholic University

This book is a superb contribution to a particularly complex field historically and philosophically. The scholarship is erudite, rigorous, lucid, and adeptly connects the complexities of Shakespeare's historical dramatic art to issues of contemporary relevance.--Liam Semler, University of Sydney