03710nam a22005415i 4500 978-3-031-40157-2 DE-He213 20251030110837.0 cr nn 008mamaa 231123s2024 sz | s |||| 0|eng d 9783031401572 978-3-031-40157-2 10.1007/978-3-031-40157-2 doi PN715-749 DSB bicssc LIT024000 bisacsh DSB thema Thom, Alexander. author. aut http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut 67444 Office and Duty in King Lear [electronic resource] : Shakespeare’s Political Theologies / by Alexander Thom. 1st ed. 2024. Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024. X, 261 p. online resource. text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier text file PDF rda Palgrave Shakespeare Studies, 2731-3212 1 Introduction -- 2 The Majesty of Kingship: Spectacular and Sacred Sovereign Power -- 3 “The Bloody Proclamation to Escape”: Edgar and Romantic Outlawry -- 4 Dividing Between Daughters -- 5 Lear’s Redemption -- 6 Conclusion: Lear’s Shadow, Office Today -- Index. This book advances five original readings of Shakespeare's King Lear, influenced by Giorgio Agamben, but tempered by primary research into Jacobean literature, law, religion, and philosophy. To grasp Lear’s encounter between politics and identity, the play demands a wider understanding of the religious influence on political thought. As Lear himself realises, sovereignty is an extreme, glamorous example of a deeper category: sacred office. Lear also shows duty intersecting with a hierarchy of bastards, outlaws, women, waifs, and monks. This book introduces concepts like petit treason, civil death, and waivery into political theological studies, complicating Agamben’s models. Goneril’s treason shows the sovereign’s consort and children are consecrated lives too. Lear’s crisis of "self-knowing" stages a landmark critique of office. The promise of his poignant speech before the prison is foreclosed by Shakespeare's invention: an officer dutifully murdering Cordelia. This book’s conclusion, through Hannah Arendt, reconsiders Lear’s persistent association with the Holocaust. Dr Alexander Thom is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of English, University of Leeds, UK. His postdoctoral research focuses on the displaced in English Renaissance drama. This book is based on his Midlands3Cities AHRC doctorate, which was awarded in 2020 by the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK. European literature Renaissance, 1450-1600. 67445 Drama. 67446 Literature History and criticism. 66499 Early Modern and Renaissance Literature. 67447 Drama. 67446 Literary History. 66789 SpringerLink (Online service) Springer Nature eBook Printed edition: 9783031401565 Printed edition: 9783031401589 Printed edition: 9783031401596 Palgrave Shakespeare Studies, 2731-3212 67448 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40157-2 ZDB-2-LCM ZDB-2-SXL 56604 56604