Résumés
Abstract
The present article explores how William Shakespeare’s King Lear thoughtfully challenges the primacy of sight among the senses, with implications for our understanding of the play’s relationship both to its immediate political context and to the history of ocularcentrism in early modern England. Adopting a new historicist approach, this article claims that writing King Lear in the midst of heated debates on the Anglo-Scottish Union was both a reaction to any possible ocularcentric behaviour by King James and a part of active criticism against the ocularcentrism of the period. Regardless of his personal opinion on James’s plan for the Union, Shakespeare was worried that the king would act according to his ocularcentric understanding of the two countries under his rule. Therefore, King Lear can be read as an advance warning to King James, who needs to be wary of superficial, sight-centred behaviours so as not to suffer the same fate as Lear.
Résumé
Cette étude explore comment Le Roi Lear de William Shakespeare remet judicieusement en question la primauté de la vue parmi les sens, ce qui a des implications pour notre compréhension de la relation que cette pièce entretient à la fois avec son contexte politique immédiat et avec l’histoire de l’oculocentrisme dans l’Angleterre de la première modernité. Adoptant une approche empruntée au « New Historicism », cette étude soutient que l’écriture du Roi Lear, en plein débat sur l’Union anglo-écossaise, fut à la fois une réaction aux éventuels comportements oculocentriques du roi Jacques Ier et une véritable critique de l’oculocentrisme de l’époque. Indépendamment de son opinion sur le plan de Jacques Ier pour l’Union, Shakespeare craignait qu’il n’agisse selon sa compréhension oculaire des deux pays sous son autorité. Par conséquent, Le Roi Lear peut être lu comme un avertissement au roi Jacques Ier de se méfier des comportements superficiels centrés sur la vue afin d’éviter de subir le même sort que Lear.
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