Shakespearean Character and Theories of Mindreading

By Nicholas Ryan Helms

Mindreading is the human ability to look at a person or a literary character and

contemplate what that person is thinking, feeling, and planning. In this dissertation I identify two

methods of mindreading: inference and imagination. Shakespeare uses both methods, at times

constructing characters by referring to theories of human behavior (inference), at times by

referring to the particular perspective of a character (imagination). I engage current debates about

the usefulness of character criticism, but I begin by addressing L. C. Knights' tongue-in-cheek

question, "How many children had Lady Macbeth?" Knights crystallized discontent with

nineteenth-century character criticism, a discontent that was picked up by American new critics

and subsequently post-structuralist critics of many stripes. Like Michael Bristol, Jessica Slights,

and Paul Yachnin, I argue for a literary criticism that considers characters as if they were real

people living in recognizable worlds. I add to this conversation by using terms and concepts from

cognitive science that provide clarity to discussions of character. Theories of mindreading offer

criticism a language with which to analyze moments of reading and misreading and to consider

the mental workings of fictional characters in Shakespeare's plays.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1835710107
• ISBN13: 9781835710104
• Release Date: October 2023
• Publisher: Alihyd Hussain
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"