A Jungian Study of Shakespeare The Visionary Mode

by Fike, Matthew A.

• ISBN13: 9780230612198
• ISBN10: 0230612199
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-01-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Employing the analytical psychology of Carl Jung, Matthew A. Fike provides a fresh understanding of individuation in Shakespeare. This study of "the visionary mode" Jung's term for literature that comes through the artist from the collective unconsciouscombines a strong grounding in Jungian terminology and theory with myth criticism, biblical literary criticism, and postcolonial theory. Fike draws extensively on the rich discussions in theCollected Works of C. G. Jungto illuminate selected plays such asAMidsummer Night's Dream,The Merchant of Venice, The Henriad, Othello, andHamletin new and surprising ways. Fike's clear and thorough approach to Shakespeare offers exciting, original scholarship that will appeal to students and scholars alike.

Author Biography

Matthew A. Fike is Associate Professor of English at Winthrop University, where he teaches courses in Shakespeare and Renaissance literature. He served for nearly a decade as a founding faculty member at the American University in Bulgaria and is the author of Spenser’s Underworld in the 1590 Faerie Queene.

 

 

Table of Contents

“A Jungian Study of Shakespeare is a powerful analysis of the psychic and the historical in Shakespeare’s plays. Both scholarly and lively, Fike brings such under-researched notions as unconscious, myth, trickster, a man’s inner feminine, and the shadow of self and society into a new and satisfying understanding of Shakespeare’s play. A strongly recommended addition to the scholarship of the Bard.”—Susan Rowland, Professor of English and Jungian Studies, University of Greenwich