The Time Is Out of Joint: Shakespeare as Philosopher of History

(Paperback)

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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.

Reviews

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

Author Bio

Agnes Heller is Hannah Arendt Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York.