The Time is Out of Joint: Shakespeare as Philosopher of History - Softcover

Heller, Agnes

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0742512517 ISBN 13: 9780742512511

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002

Synopsis

The Time Is Out of Joint presents an examination of Shakespeare's distinctly modern confrontation with time and temporality, the difference between the truth of the fact, that of theory, and that of interpretation and revelatory truth, and finds that Shakespeare anticipated post-metaphysical philosophy and its central concerns at a time when modern metaphysics had not yet reached it speak.

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Review

Shakespeare, who is truly our contemporary, provides the type of genuine insight and subtle understanding of history and politics that one rarely finds in more discursive treatises. Heller's fresh, sensitive readings are always thought-provoking. She effectively shows the richness and fertility of Shakespeare's dramas for thinking about the most intractable political and historical questions.--Richard J. Bernstein, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin

Synopsis

This work covers the Shakespearean ouvre from a philosophical perspective, finding that Shakespeare's historical dramas reflect issues and reveal puzzles which were later taken up by philosophy proper. 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 endeavours, and are compared with early modern, modern and post-modern thought. Heller shows that modernity found in Shakespeare's work a revelatory character which marked the end of both metaphysical system-building and a tragic reckoning with the accessibility of an absolute truth. Heller distinguishes the four stages found in constantly unique relation in Shakespeare's work and probes their significance as time comes to fall "out of joint" and may again be set aright.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0742512517
• ISBN 13: 9780742512511
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384