Second and concluding lecture on Macbeth before two-week break: the solitude of the present moment; the only relief to that is friendship; Banquo as window, like Bullingbrook, Horatio, Kent, the Fool, and Edgar; but Macbeth murders Banquo and must not look to have friends (Seyton is his last forlorn hope), and so is lost in time, like tears in rain, time's bank and shoal eroded into dust and ashes.

Second and concluding lecture on Macbeth before two-week break: the solitude of the present moment; the only relief to that is friendship; Banquo as window, like Bullingbrook, Horatio, Kent, the Fool, and Edgar; but Macbeth murders Banquo and must not look to have friends (Seyton is his last forlorn hope), and so is lost in time, like tears in rain, time's bank and shoal eroded into dust and ashes.

Somewhat fumbling and disappointingly inarticulate account of time and the specious present in Shakespeare, and its most intense presentation in Macbeth.  The difference between the character (with his history and prospects) and the subject, existing in the present only which is all that exists, and experiencing his history and prospects as outside of himself.  Tragedy, time, and pure subjectivity.

Edgar.

His relation to Gloucester, and to Edmund.  The kindness of the gods.  Jacob and Esau reunited.  Exchanging charity.  Love between mortals.

Embarrassing parents and what they know; what does Edmund want?; sibling competition and bonding; the fool and Cordelia

The oddness of writing a tragedy about a person whose life is already just about over; some flushing of the coverts of the microglot in order to consider the modes and methods of Shakespeare's delicate suggestiveness; the opening lines of the play; Edmund's embarrassing and embarrassed situation.

More on Hamlet's relation to representations of revenge; their relevance; the difficulty of distinguishing between crime and punishment; the failure of moral luck to provide a distinction; Hamlet compared to Vertigo; Horatio's dispassionate judgment; how Hamlet defeats Claudius as a matter of drama and theatrical dynamic and not the establishment of facts antecedent to the start of the play.

A continuation of the analysis of Hamlet, both character and play.  What is the nature of Hamlet's interiority?  What relation does it have to his being a character in a drama?  How does he parallel, and how diverge, from Laertes?  The possibility that Claudius is Hamlet's father is treated, with respect to what this would mean from the point of view of the ghost.  The disappearance of the ghost in Act V is noted and considered.  Preferences among preferences or second order desires are introduced.

Introduction to Hamlet; idea of revenge in law and in tragedy (revenge as representation of crime); characters of Horatio, Claudius, and Hamlet

Classes start up again February 22.  In the meantime, here's a talk I gave at Wayne State on February 12, on biological game theory and narrative, with almost no Shakespeare in it, but lots of Golden Balls: I think it's pretty followable as a podcast, but you won't get the visuals of the YouTubes I show at the end.  Comment if you want links to the videos.