Linda Charnes - Hamlet’s Heirs: Shakespeare and the Politics of a New Millennium

Hamlets Heirs

Namesake princes and presidents; stolen thrones and elections; plutocrats and insurgents; campaign trails and war-mongering; waning monarchy and imperilled democracy; and revengers, early modern and postmodern these themes drive this provocative study of Shakespeares legacy in contemporary American and British politics.

Linked by focused readings of Hamlet and the Henriad, the essays follow Shakespeares two most famous royal sons, the princes Hamlet and Hal, as they haunt contemporary political psychology in the early years of a new millennium, and especially in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Between devolution in Britain and the new doctrine of pre-emptive strike in the United States, our contemporary Hamlets and Hals epitomize a debate as fraught now as in Shakespeares day about the cost of spin-doctoring legacies. In exploring how current political culture inherits Shakespeare, Hamlets Heirs challenges scholarly assumptions about historical periodicity, modernity, and the uses of Shakespeare in present-day contexts.

Speaking to readers in a voice that is adventurous rather than authoritative, innovative rather than institutional, and speculative rather than orthodox, Charnes reveals that when it comes to legacy we are all, in one way or another, Hamlets heirs.

ACCENTS ON SHAKESPEARE

General Editor: TERENCE HAWKES

It is more than twenty years since the New Accents series helped to establish theory as a fundamental and continuing feature of the study of literature at the undergraduate level. Since then, the need for short, powerful cutting edge accounts of and comments on new developments has increased sharply. In the case of Shakespeare, books with this sort of focus have not been readily available. Accents on Shakespeare aims to supply them.

Accents on Shakespeare volumes will either apply theory, or broaden and adapt it in order to connect with concrete teaching concerns. In the process, they will also reflect and engage with the major developments in Shakespeare studies of the last ten years.

The series will lead as well as follow. In pursuit of this goal it will be a two-tiered series. In addition to affordable, adoptable titles aimed at modular undergraduate courses, it will include a number of research-based books. Spirited and committed, these second-tier volumes advocate radical change rather than stolidly reinforcing the status quo.

IN THE SAME SERIES

Shakespeare and Appropriation
Edited by Christy Desmet and Robert Sawyer

Shakespeare Without Women
Dympna Callaghan

Philosophical Shakespeares
Edited by John J. Joughin

Shakespeare and Modernity: Early Modern to Millennium
Edited by Hugh Grady

Marxist Shakespeares
Edited by Jean E. Howard and Scott Cutler Shershow

Shakespeare in Psychoanalysis
Philip Armstrong

Shakespeare and Modern Theatre: The Performance of Modernity
Edited by Michael Bristol and Kathleen McLuskie

Shakespeare and Feminist Performance: Ideology on Stage
Sarah Werner

Shame in Shakespeare
Ewan Fernie

The Sound of Shakespeare
Wes Folkerth

Shakespeare in the Present
Terence Hawkes

Making Shakespeare
Tiffany Stern

Spiritual Shakespeares
Ed. Ewan Fernie

Presentist Shakespeare
Ed. Terence Hawkes and Hugh Grady

Green Shakespeare: From Ecopolitics to Ecocriticism
Gabriel Egan

Hamlets Heirs: Shakespeare and thePolitics of a New Millennium
Linda Charnes

First published 2006 in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

2006 Linda Charnes

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Charnes, Linda.
Hamlets heirs : Shakespeare & the politics of a new millennium / Linda Charnes.
p. cm. (Accents on Shakespeare)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-26193-7 (alk. paper) ISBN 0-415-26194-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Shakespeare, William, 15641616. Hamlet. 2. Shakespeare, William, 15641616Political and social views. 3. Political plays, EnglishHistory and criticism. 4. Shakespeare, William, 15641616Influence. 5. Politics and literatureGreat Britain. 6. Inheritance and succession in literature. 7. Hamlet (Legendary character) 8. Monarchy in literature. 9. Princes in literature. I. Title. II. Series.
PR2807.C2776 2006
822.33dc22 2005030913

ISBN10: 0-415-26193-7ISBN13: 978-0-415-26193-7 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-415-26194-5ISBN13: 978-0-415-26194-4 (pbk)

For Amanda and Jake