Jung's Advice to the Players: A Jungian Reading of Shakespeare's Problem Plays

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Shakespeare's problem plays present an unusually fertile field for Jungian tillage. Like a face glimpsed in a crowd and then lost, these works seem to hint at truths just beyond our grasp. Viewed through the lens of Jung's theory of archetypes, pieces fall into place with remarkable clarity, each revolving around a specific critical axis that allows us to see the form and structure that elude us in other readings. The author argues that Jung's theories offer the best key to date for these most intriguing of literary and dramatic puzzles.

Reviews

[P]orterfield's book is accessible to the general reader. Indeed, it is a pleasure to read dramatic criticism written in such lucid, crisp prose. Anyone intending to direct or design one of these plays or act a role from them will find much to ponder in this little book. * New England Theatre Journal *
Since we, as spectators, also have a psychological orentation, Jung helps us understand our own reaction to the characters onstage and to the complex negotiations that Shakespeare depicts within the psyches of his major characters. His theories are nicely consistent with renaissance psychology: extraversion includes the choleric and sanguine, whlie introversion incorporates the melancholic and phlegmatic. * Shakespeare Quarterly *

Author Bio

Sally F. Porterfield received her PhD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. At present, she teaches and directs at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford and the University of Connecticut. She has also been a working theatre critic and free-lance writer for 20 years.