The Time Is Out of Joint: Shakespeare as Philosopher of HistoryThe Time Is Out of Joint handles the Shakespearean oeuvre from a philosophical perspective, finding that Shakespeare's historical dramas reflect on issues and reveal puzzles which were taken up by philosophy proper only in the centuries following them. Shakespeare's extraordinary handling of time and temporality, the difference between truth and fact, that of theory, and that of interpretation and revelatory truth are evaluated in terms of Shakespeare's own conjectural endeavors, and are compared with early modern, modern, and postmodern thought. Heller shows that modernity, which recognized itself in Shakespeare only from the time of Romanticism, found in Shakespeare's work a revelatory character which marked the end of both metaphysical system-building and a tragic reckoning with the inaccessibility of an absolute, timeless truth. Heller distinguishes the four stages found in constantly unique relation in Shakespeare's work (historical, personal, political, and existential) and probes their significance as time comes to fall 'out of joint' and may be again set aright. Rather than initially bestowing upon Shakespeare the dubious honorary title of philosopher, Heller probes the concretely situated reflections of characters who must face a blind and irrational fate either without taking responsibility for the discordance of time, or with a responsibility which may both transform history into politics, and set right the time which is out of joint. In the ruminations and undertakings of these characters, Shakespeare's dramas present a philosophy of history, a political philosophy, and a philosophy of (im)moral personality. Heller weighs each as distinctly modern confrontations with the possibility of truth and virtue within a human historical condition no less multifarious for its momentariness. |
From inside the book
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Page 4
... Othello. I speak only of those who go on living and acting for some time.This gift is akin to drawing a lucky card.The lucky card can be misused or squandered, or it can be used to win the jackpot ofa good life, grandeur, or the ability ...
... Othello. I speak only of those who go on living and acting for some time.This gift is akin to drawing a lucky card.The lucky card can be misused or squandered, or it can be used to win the jackpot ofa good life, grandeur, or the ability ...
Page 7
... Othello's tragic fate: his lack ofjudgment or his jealousy? What was prior in Edmund's wickedness: his ressentiment, his cleverness, or his hunger to be loved? And what was prior in Rosalind: her sense ofjustice, the inde- pendence of ...
... Othello's tragic fate: his lack ofjudgment or his jealousy? What was prior in Edmund's wickedness: his ressentiment, his cleverness, or his hunger to be loved? And what was prior in Rosalind: her sense ofjustice, the inde- pendence of ...
Page 28
... first scene, but in Othello it is only in act 3.) Yet when there is a point of no return, it is the beginning of the free fall.When the acceleration ofthe free fall begins (and if it begins, because it does not always do 28 Chapter One.
... first scene, but in Othello it is only in act 3.) Yet when there is a point of no return, it is the beginning of the free fall.When the acceleration ofthe free fall begins (and if it begins, because it does not always do 28 Chapter One.
Page 30
... Othello uses the few minutes before his death for his final self- interpretation, but this is final only because he dies. We do not know whether Iago, who at this stage decides to remain silent, accepted this self- interpretation.We do ...
... Othello uses the few minutes before his death for his final self- interpretation, but this is final only because he dies. We do not know whether Iago, who at this stage decides to remain silent, accepted this self- interpretation.We do ...
Page 31
... Othello: he wants to have the “truth” without interpretation; he wants absolute verification. His intellectual absolutism is as absurd as Othello's foolishness.We, as spectators, know this only too well.Without having been taken into ...
... Othello: he wants to have the “truth” without interpretation; he wants absolute verification. His intellectual absolutism is as absurd as Othello's foolishness.We, as spectators, know this only too well.Without having been taken into ...
Contents
1 | |
13 | |
Part II The History Plays
| 161 |
Part III Three Roman Plays
| 279 |
Postscript Historical Truth and Poetic Truth
| 367 |
About the Author
| 375 |
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