A Reading of Hamlet

Journal title PARADIGMI
Author/s Giuseppe Di Giacomo
Publishing Year 2015 Issue 2015/1
Language Italian Pages 16 P. 21-36 File size 69 KB
DOI 10.3280/PARA2015-001003
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Hamlet is a tragedy without beginning or ending. The silence which lies at the centre of the play is its most enigmatic trait, as it is doubtless that, when language fails, silence can be more eloquent than words. On closer inspection, Hamlet’s problem is not revenge in itself but his hesitation to carry it out; this is why the tragedy questions the very principle of revenge. It is the past that condemns Hamlet to action, although the latter is constantly postponed. Revenge takes place because of a chain of events of which he is innocent; thus Hamlet is compelled to take revenge by other people’s plans, is overwhelmed by chance, and falls into a death that he did not give himself; as a consequence, his acting finally extinguishes itself in an action he did not choose. In Hamlet the crime that ignites action happens outside the play, and the focus of attention, in the play itself, lies in the hero’s efforts to do his duty. While in Macbeth we find a hectic rhythm of development of the action, in Hamlet there is no real temporal and chronological development: as Hamlet himself affirms, the time is out of joint and he was born to set it right.

Keywords: Absence of Action, Final Catastrophe, Modernity, Play-within-the play, Silence-Unsayable, Tale-Words.

  1. Adorno Th. W. (1993). Beethoven. Philosophie der Musik. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag (trad. it.: Beethoven. Torino: Einaudi, 2001).
  2. Bradley A. C. (1904). Shakespearean Tragedy. London: Macmillan, 1962 (trad. it.: La tragedia di Shakespeare. Storia, personaggi, analisi. Milano: Rizzoli, 2007).
  3. Cavell S. (1987). Disowning Knowledge: In Six Plays of Shakespeare. Cambridge-New York: Cambridge University Press; nuova edizione: Disowning Knowledge: In Seven Plays of Shakespeare. Cambridge-New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003, DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139165129(trad.it.:Ilripudiodelsapere.LoscetticismonelteatrodiShakespeare.Torino:Einaudi,2004)
  4. Croce B. (1919). Ariosto, Shakespeare e Corneille. Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1968.
  5. Frye N. (1967). Fools of Time. Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press (trad. it.: Tempo che opprime, tempo che redime. Riflessioni sul teatro di Shakespeare. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1986).
  6. Kott J. (1961), Szkice o szekspirze. Warszawa: Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe (trad. it.: Shakespeare nostro contemporaneo. Milano: Feltrinelli, 2006). Adorno Th. W. (1993). Beethoven. Philosophie der Musik. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag (trad. it.: Beethoven. Torino: Einaudi, 2001).
  7. Bradley A. C. (1904). Shakespearean Tragedy. London: Macmillan, 1962 (trad. it.: La tragedia di Shakespeare. Storia, personaggi, analisi. Milano: Rizzoli, 2007).
  8. Cavell S. (1987). Disowning Knowledge: In Six Plays of Shakespeare. Cambridge-New York: Cambridge University Press; nuova edizione: Disowning Knowledge: In Seven Plays of Shakespeare. Cambridge-New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003, DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139165129(trad.it.:Ilripudiodelsapere.LoscetticismonelteatrodiShakespeare.Torino:Einaudi,2004)
  9. Croce B. (1919). Ariosto, Shakespeare e Corneille. Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1968.
  10. Frye N. (1967). Fools of Time. Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press (trad. it.: Tempo che opprime, tempo che redime. Riflessioni sul teatro di Shakespeare. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1986).
  11. Kott J. (1961), Szkice o szekspirze. Warszawa: Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe (trad. it.: Shakespeare nostro contemporaneo. Milano: Feltrinelli, 2006). Krippendorff E. (1992). Politik in Shakespeares Dramen. Historien, Römerdramen, Tragödien. Frankfurt am Main: Surhkamp Verlag (trad. it.: Shakespeare politico. Drammi storici, drammi romani, tragedie. Roma: Fazi, 2005).
  12. Lukács G. (1916). Die Theorie des Romans. Ein geschichtsphilosophischer Versuch über die Formen der grossen Epik. Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft, 2: 225-71 e 390-431 (trad. it.: Teoria del romanzo. Parma: Pratiche, 1994).
  13. Nietzsche F. (1872). Die Geburt der Tragödie. In: Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Vol. III, 1. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1972 (trad. it.: La nascita della tragedia. Milano: Adelphi, 1972).
  14. Schmitt C. (1956). Hamlet oder Hekuba. Der Einbruch der Zeit in das Spiel. Düsseldorf: E. Diederichs (trad. it.: Amleto o Ecuba. L’irrompere del tempo nel gioco del dramma. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1983).
  15. Shakespeare W. (1997). Amleto, trad. it. di Montale E., con testo a fronte. In: Drammi dialettici, a cura di Melchiori G.. Milano: I Meridiani, Mondadori.
  16. Vygotskij L. S. (1916). Tragedija o Gamlete, printse datskom, U. Šekspira, Moskva: Iskusstvo (trad. it.: La tragedia di Amleto. Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1973).
  17. Vygotskij L. S. (1925). Psichologija iskusstva. Moskva: Iskusstvo (trad. it.: Psicologia dell’arte. Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1972).

Giuseppe Di Giacomo, Lettura dell’Amleto in "PARADIGMI" 1/2015, pp 21-36, DOI: 10.3280/PARA2015-001003