Research Article

Reflections on Early Modern Understanding of Affects in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Humors, Bodies and Passions in the Player’s Hecuba Speech

Volume: 16 Number: 1 June 6, 2022
TR EN

Reflections on Early Modern Understanding of Affects in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Humors, Bodies and Passions in the Player’s Hecuba Speech

Abstract

Considered to be affective mediums exercising powers changing the humoral balances of bodies, theatre plays have been severely attacked on the grounds that they provoke strong emotions by early modern critics such as Stephen Gosson and Philip Stubbes in the Shakespearean period. According to Stephen Gosson, for instance, due to their emotional and physiological impact theatre performances weakened and undermined audiences’ capacities to reason and judge; and thus, needed to be prohibited altogether. This study provides a detailed analysis of the Hecuba speech (II, ii) in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Through the Player’s and Hamlet’s reactions to the Hecuba-speech, it will discuss the characters’ attitudes towards theatre and comment on early modern theatre debates. The study will further discuss William Shakespeare’s stand on the affective potential of theatre in times when theatre plays have been considered contagious and altering the balance between minds, passions and bodies.

Keywords

References

  1. Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy, ed. Thomas C. Faulkner, Nicolas K. Kiessling, and Rhonda L. Blair, 6 vols. Clarendon Press, 1989-2000.
  2. Craik, Katherine A. and Tanya Pollard, “Introduction: Imagining Audiences,” in Shakespearean Sensations: Experiencing Literature in Early Modern England, ed. by Katherine A. Craik. Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp. 1-25.
  3. Filipczak, Zirka Z. Hot Dry Men Cold Wet Women: The Theory of Humours in Western European Art, 1575-1700. American Federation of Arts, 1997.
  4. Gosson, Stephen. Plays Confuted in Five Actions (1582), in Shakespeare’s Theater: A Sourcebook, ed. by Tanya Pollard. Wiley, 2008, pp. 84-114.
  5. James, Susan. Passion and Action: The Emotions in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  6. Tribble, Evelyn. “Affective Contagion on the Early Modern Stage,” in Affect Theory and Early Modern Texts: Politics, Ecologies, and Form, ed. by Amanda Bailey and Mario DiGangi. Palgrave, 2017, 195-212.
  7. Park, Katherine and Eckhard Kessler, “The Concept of Psychology,” in The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, ed. Charles B. Schmitt et al. Cambridge University Press, 1988, 455-63.
  8. Paster, Gail Kern. “Introduction,” in Humoring the Body: Emotions and the Shakespearean Stage. The University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1-24.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Literary Studies, Literary Theory

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

June 6, 2022

Submission Date

March 30, 2021

Acceptance Date

April 8, 2022

Published in Issue

Year 2022 Volume: 16 Number: 1

APA
İsaeva-güneş, N. (2022). Reflections on Early Modern Understanding of Affects in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Humors, Bodies and Passions in the Player’s Hecuba Speech. Cankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 16(1), 99-114. https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.905723
AMA
1.İsaeva-güneş N. Reflections on Early Modern Understanding of Affects in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Humors, Bodies and Passions in the Player’s Hecuba Speech. CUJHSS. 2022;16(1):99-114. doi:10.47777/cankujhss.905723
Chicago
İsaeva-güneş, Neshen. 2022. “Reflections on Early Modern Understanding of Affects in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Humors, Bodies and Passions in the Player’s Hecuba Speech”. Cankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 16 (1): 99-114. https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.905723.
EndNote
İsaeva-güneş N (June 1, 2022) Reflections on Early Modern Understanding of Affects in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Humors, Bodies and Passions in the Player’s Hecuba Speech. Cankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 16 1 99–114.
IEEE
[1]N. İsaeva-güneş, “Reflections on Early Modern Understanding of Affects in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Humors, Bodies and Passions in the Player’s Hecuba Speech”, CUJHSS, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 99–114, June 2022, doi: 10.47777/cankujhss.905723.
ISNAD
İsaeva-güneş, Neshen. “Reflections on Early Modern Understanding of Affects in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Humors, Bodies and Passions in the Player’s Hecuba Speech”. Cankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 16/1 (June 1, 2022): 99-114. https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.905723.
JAMA
1.İsaeva-güneş N. Reflections on Early Modern Understanding of Affects in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Humors, Bodies and Passions in the Player’s Hecuba Speech. CUJHSS. 2022;16:99–114.
MLA
İsaeva-güneş, Neshen. “Reflections on Early Modern Understanding of Affects in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Humors, Bodies and Passions in the Player’s Hecuba Speech”. Cankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, vol. 16, no. 1, June 2022, pp. 99-114, doi:10.47777/cankujhss.905723.
Vancouver
1.Neshen İsaeva-güneş. Reflections on Early Modern Understanding of Affects in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Humors, Bodies and Passions in the Player’s Hecuba Speech. CUJHSS. 2022 Jun. 1;16(1):99-114. doi:10.47777/cankujhss.905723

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