Shakespeare and Theories of Political Theology

By Sandra Logan

Shakespeare and Political Theology provides readers with a lucid introduction to the concept of political theology as espoused by Carl Schmitt, to the variety of responses to it from more recent theorists and to how it can be used as an approach to Shakespeare studies. It features readings of plays from each genre to illustrate different threads in political-theological approaches to Shakespeare's drama and how critics have employed them, but also to reveal that Shakespeare both immortalized and intensely critiqued the concepts of political theology through his plays.

Logan begins by unpacking Carl Schmitt's concept before examining a range of critiques and responses to Schmitt's theories from other twentieth- and twenty-first century theorists, including Walter Benjamin, Giorgio Agamben, Hannah Arendt, and Roberto Esposito. These debates are juxtaposed with parallel early modern political theories and concepts developed by Jean Bodin, Thomas Smith, Martin Luther, and Jean Calvin, and with the religious roots of sovereign will-above-law (decisionism) in the medieval theory of the king's two bodies.

Against this theoretical background, the book provides a rich account of how scholars have engaged with various aspects of political theology across a range of Shakespeare's plays from all genres - the comedies Measure for Measure and As You Like It, the tragedies Hamlet and Macbeth, the romances The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, and the histories King John and Henry VIII. These reveal Shakespeare's challenges to entrenched views of sovereign authority and impunity, sovereign/subject relations, questions of obedience and resistance, and conditions of exceptionalism and banishment. It closes with suggested readings for those who wish to pursue further research on this theoretical approach.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1350275077
• ISBN13: 9781350275072
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: The Arden Shakespeare
• Length: 256 Pages
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 1.0" x 5.1"