New Books in British Studies

All for Nothing: Hamlet's Negativity


Listen Later

A specter is haunting philosophy—the specter of Hamlet. Why is this? Wherefore? What should we do?

Entering from stage left: the philosopher's Hamlet. The philosopher's Hamlet is a conceptual character, played by philosophers rather than actors. He performs not in the theater but within the space of philosophical positions. In All for Nothing, Andrew Cutrofello critically examines the performance history of this unique role.

The philosopher's Hamlet personifies negativity. In Shakespeare's play, Hamlet's speech and action are characteristically negative; he is the melancholy Dane. Most would agree that he has nothing to be cheerful about. Philosophers have taken Hamlet to embody specific forms of negativity that first came into view in modernity. What the figure of the Sophist represented for Plato, Hamlet has represented for modern philosophers. Cutrofello analyzes five aspects of Hamlet's negativity: his melancholy, negative faith, nihilism, tarrying (which Cutrofello distinguishes from “delaying”), and nonexistence. Along the way, we meet Hamlet in the texts of Kant, Coleridge, Hegel, Marx, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Freud, Russell, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Benjamin, Arendt, Schmitt, Lacan, Deleuze, Foucault, Derrida, Badiou, Žižek, and other philosophers. Whirling across a kingdom of infinite space, the philosopher's Hamlet is nothing if not thought-provoking.

Andrew Cutrofello is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago. He is the author of Continental Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction and other books.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

New Books in British StudiesBy Marshall Poe

  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4

4

3 ratings


More shows like New Books in British Studies

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,389 Listeners

History Extra podcast by Immediate Media

History Extra podcast

3,193 Listeners

History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps by Peter Adamson

History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

1,588 Listeners

Jacobin Radio by Jacobin

Jacobin Radio

1,424 Listeners

Best of the Spectator by The Spectator

Best of the Spectator

184 Listeners

The Dig by Daniel Denvir

The Dig

1,543 Listeners

CrowdScience by BBC World Service

CrowdScience

480 Listeners

This Day by Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

This Day

989 Listeners

The Ancients by History Hit

The Ancients

3,039 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

13,053 Listeners

Gone Medieval by History Hit

Gone Medieval

1,758 Listeners

Not Just the Tudors by History Hit

Not Just the Tudors

1,982 Listeners

The Rest Is Politics by Goalhanger

The Rest Is Politics

3,286 Listeners

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society by History Hit

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

1,210 Listeners

Past Present Future by David Runciman

Past Present Future

321 Listeners