A Crack in the Shell: Reading a Few Lines from King Lear

• Authors: Sławek Tadeusz
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

The article takes up the theme of Agamben’s violence without a form of justice and reads Shakespeare’s tragedy as spanned between Cordelia’s “nothing” at the start of the play and Lear’s “never” at its end. It also approaches a question of the relationship between, in Rousseau’s word, “l’homme naturel” and “citoyen.” Lear’s push towards a position of being “unaccommodated” suggests a move away from the organization of life previously holding its rule over men towards a marginal, peripheral zone with uncertain rules where man has to risk his own decisions rather than merely follow the custom.

Keywords

EN

William Shakespeare; King Lear; violence and justice

• Publisher: Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw
• Journal: Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies
• Year: 2016
• Issue: 25/3
• Pages: 11-36

Contributors

author

Sławek Tadeusz

• University of Silesia

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