'As good as a chorus': Hamlet’s Mousetrap in philosophy and psychoanalysis

Mostra el registre complet Registre parcial de l'ítem

• dc.contributor.author Arribas, Sonia
• dc.date.accessioned 2024-08-29T06:54:21Z
• dc.date.available 2024-08-29T06:54:21Z
• dc.date.issued 2022
• dc.description.abstract A great part of Hamlet’s mystery resides in the Mousetrap. Its role is fundamental for the tension of the play, yet its importance extends beyond that. Philosophers and psychoanalysts alike have been fascinated by it. The former have underlined its epistemological aspects and capacity for self-reflection: its power to mirror reality and reveal something new. The latter have placed weight on its ‘primal scene’ character and have underlined its failure to move Hamlet to act. Here I explore the paradox that results from putting philosophy and psychoanalysis together. To illustrate its functions, as well as the different readings of it, I delve into certain moments of the scene and Hamlet several times. Expanding on some remarks made by Lacan about the Mousetrap, I contend that it is a ‘rigging system’, a highly complex mise-en-abyme structure and intersubjective complex unfolded over successive layers. This explains the self-reflectivity discerned by philosophers. Following Benjamin and Lacan, and by means of a detour through Schmitt, I argue at the end that its failure needs to be situated in the historical moment when it was created – a world characterised by the lack of transcendent values – one in which art folds back upon itself infinitely.
• dc.description.sponsorship This work was supported by MINECO: [grant number FFI2015-70273-P].
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
• dc.identifier.citation Arribas S. 'As good as a chorus': Hamlet’s Mousetrap in philosophy and psychoanalysis. Textual Pract. 2022;36(9):1537-58. DOI: 10.1080/0950236X.2021.1972444
• dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2021.1972444
• dc.identifier.issn 0950-236X
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/60947
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.publisher Taylor & Francis
• dc.relation.ispartof Textual Practice. 2022;36(9):1537-58.
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/1PE/FFI2015-70273-P
• dc.rights © This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Textual Practice on 01 Sep 2021, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/0950236X.2021.1972444
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.subject.keyword Hamlet
• dc.subject.keyword Freud
• dc.subject.keyword Benjamin
• dc.subject.keyword Lacan
• dc.subject.keyword Schmitt
• dc.title 'As good as a chorus': Hamlet’s Mousetrap in philosophy and psychoanalysis
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
• dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion