Intertextual Madness in Hamlet: The Ghost's Fragmented Performativity | Zendy

Hilaire Kallendorf | Zendy

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Intertextual Madness in <i>Hamlet</i>: The Ghost's Fragmented Performativity

Author(s) -

Hilaire Kallendorf

Publication year - 1998

Publication title -

renaissance and reformation

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1

H-Index - 5

eISSN - 2293-7374

pISSN - 0034-429X

DOI - 10.33137/rr.v34i4.10802

Subject(s) - hamlet (protein complex) , performativity , theme (computing) , performative utterance , art , literature , philosophy , verisimilitude , aesthetics , epistemology , computer science , operating system

This essay establishes King James I's Daemonologie and Reginald Scot's Discouerie of Witchcraft as intertexts for Hamlet . It demonstrates how the diabolical linguistic register borrowed from these intertexts both heightens the verisimilitude of Hamlet's madness and expands the performative potential of the Ghost. Performativity has often been discussed as a theme for this play, but usually only in relation to Hamlet himself. This essay avoids the reductionism of the "Ghost critics" and extends the performativity theme to the Ghost as well by offering him a diabolical mask to try on in addition to his many others.

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