theory | iconography | hermeneutics | sexuality + psychoanalysis
poetics, politics, public sphere | syllabi | resources | products | julia lupton

T H I N K I N GxW I T HxS H A K E S P E A R E does not eschew political readings of Shakespeare, but rather prefers constructive engagement with the history of political thought to contextual or ideological reductions of the political. Concepts such as citizenship, personhood, contract, rights, and equality are, at every step of their articulation, historically and conceptually compromised by collusion with privilege. Yet the history of political philosophy has also involved a sustained address to and self-critique around questions of access, equity, pluralism, consent, and democratization. In reclaiming the vitality of political thought in a framework other than culture, “Thinking with Shakespeare” calls for the creative convocation of voices from ancient, early modern, and contemporary political theory in relation to Shakespearean stagings of sovereignty, civility, and public space.

T H I N K I N GxW I T HxS H A K E S P E A R E interrelates forms of linguistic association – the pathways of cognition, desire, memory, and repression – and forms of political association – the assembly of groups around rights and rites of affiliation and exclusion. As such, it brings together politics (the science of political association), poetics (the art of linguistic association), and the public sphere (the dynamics of civil associations, which take place beneath, outside or in opposition to the state). This website is itself an instance of the public sphere, insofar as its materials record collaborative conversations and are publicly shared.

theory | iconography | hermeneutics | sexuality + psychoanalysis
poetics, politics, public sphere | syllabi | resources | products | julia lupton