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Free will and folly in as you like it
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Watt, Gary (2015) Free will and folly in as you like it. Polemos: journal of law, literature and culture, 9 (1). pp. 15-35. doi:10.1515/pol-2015-0003 ISSN 2035-5262.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/pol-2015-0003
Abstract
The testamentary will of a deceased person seldom features in Shakespeare’s comedies. What is more common is the performance of a will so stubborn and having such a bearing on the estate of the one subject to it that it may be said to exert a testamentary force. Comedy lies in the possibility of escape from a world of subjection to another’s will into a world of freedom to express a will of one’s own. In many of Shakespeare’s comedies escape takes the form of actual physical flight to a new domain – typically from court to country. The trajectory of this escape is from a hierarchical scheme of social status, to a horizontal plane of communal relations; from a traditional scheme in which property and power is handed down, to a scheme of trade in which they pass horizontally from hand-to-hand contractually. This paper will argue that As You Like It exemplifies comedic correspondence between these worlds of will.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Polemos: journal of law, literature and culture | ||||
Publisher: | Walter de Gruyter GmbH | ||||
ISSN: | 2035-5262 | ||||
Official Date: | 10 April 2015 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 9 | ||||
Number: | 1 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 15-35 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1515/pol-2015-0003 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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