'Sore Distraction': Hamlet, Augustine and Time
This article argues that Shakespeare's Hamlet is shaped by Augustinian concepts of time. Like Augustine, Hamlet laments the 'sore distraction' of temporal existence, highlighting the painful manner in which chronological time undermines being. I nevertheless argue that Hamlet moves aw...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2018]
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| In: |
Literature and theology
Year: 2018, Volume: 32, Issue: 4, Pages: 381-396 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity VA Philosophy |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This article argues that Shakespeare's Hamlet is shaped by Augustinian concepts of time. Like Augustine, Hamlet laments the 'sore distraction' of temporal existence, highlighting the painful manner in which chronological time undermines being. I nevertheless argue that Hamlet moves away from this conception of time, following Augustine as he comes to see time not solely as the destroyer of meaning, but as a means of encountering this meaning. By the end of the play, Hamlet is living in messianic time, a temporal mode that reformulates time in relation to eternity, thereby allowing him to accept his own incompletion. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4623 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Literature and theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/litthe/fry029 |