Author: Alexander Welsh Focusing on Shakespeare's Hamlet as foremost a study of grief, Alexander Welsh offers a powerful analysis of its protagonist as the archetype of the modern hero. For over two centuries writers and critics have viewed Hamlet's persona as a fascinating blend of self-consciousness, guilt, and wit. Yet in order to understand more deeply the modernity of this Shakespearean hero, Welsh first situates Hamlet within the context of family and mourning as it was presented in other revenge tragedies of Shakespeare's time. Revenge, he maintains, appears as a function of mourning rather than an end in itself. Welsh also reminds us that the mourning of a son for his father may not always be sincere. This book relates the problem of dubious mourning to Hamlet's ascendancy as an icon of Western culture, which began late in the eighteenth century, a time when the thinking of past generations--or fathers--represented to many an obstacle to human progress. Welsh reveals how Hamlet inspired some of the greatest practitioners of modernity's quintessential literary form, the novel. Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, Scott's Redgauntlet, Dickens's Great Expectations, Melville's Pierre, and Joyce's Ulysses all enhance our understanding of the play while illustrating a trend in which Hamlet ultimately becomes a model of intense consciousness. Arguing that modern consciousness mourns for the past, even as it pretends to be free of it, Welsh offers a compelling explanation of why Hamlet remains marvelously attractive to this day.

Author: Edited by Mark Luprecht This volume compiles twelve essays that reflect the surging interest in the Irish-born author Iris Murdoch as both a writer and philosopher. Beyond her impressive body of philosophical works, Murdoch produced twenty-six novels, several plays, and numerous poems, short stories, and essays during her multifaceted career. The prolific novelist-philosopher has drawn attention from scholars in multiple disciplines, which reflects her range of interests as well as the accessibility of her work from varied perspectives. The first part of the collection focuses on Murdochs literary works and approach to art. Frances Whites opening essay examines the influence of Virginia Woolf on Murdoch, while Elaine Morley deals with attention and unselfing in the writers works. Much can be learned from Murdochs letters, as Miles Leeson and Anne Rowe demonstrate in their respective contributions. David James explores Murdochs influence on fellow Irish writer John Banville. Finally, Pamela Osborn and Rivka Isaacson offer vastly different perspectives on Murdochs fourth novel, The Bell, in the two essays that round out the literature-centric half of the collection. Part two highlights concepts in and approaches to Murdochs philosophical thought. Tony Milligan writes of the meanings of puritanism and truthfulness in Murdochs philosophical writings and essays and in her novel A Fairly Honourable Defeat. Julian Jimenez Heffernans contribution centers on Murdochs confrontation with the notion of contingency. Using the philosophical lens of metaxu, Kate Larson suggests a new approach to Murdochs thought by looking at it in relation to that of Simone Weil. Paul Martens locates the similarities of structure in Murdochs The Black Prince and Sren Kierkegaards Fear and Trembling. Lastly, Matthew Martinuk delves into the affinity of thought between Charles Taylor and Murdoch. By examining both Murdochs influences and those she has influenced, Iris Murdoch Connected constructs complex new understandings of this formidable writers vast contributions to literature and philosophy.