Hegel and Shakespeare: the tragedy of character

• Grant number: 23/16518-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2024
• Effective date (End): May 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Marco Aurélio Werle
• Grantee: Larissa de Moraes Gois
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In this research, I intend to analyze the way which Hegel, in his Aesthetic, understands, under the influence of the cultural movement that precedes him, the Shakespearean tragedy, inserted in his philosophy as an important exemplification of the artistic and spiritual trends of the modern era. This period is marked by the withdrawal of the Spirit into itself, which, by acting in favor of an interiority that surpasses exteriority and imposes itself in a decisive way, leads art to its end. In this scenario, Shakespeare appears, from the Hegelian perspective, as the great first mark of the modern period, representing the moment of modernity itself and poeticizing, for the first and last time, subjectivity in its fullness. For this and other reasons, this playwright's tragedies have great prominence in Hegelian aesthetics. In this research, we will not limit ourselves to studying Hegel's interpretations regarding the content of Shakespeare's tragedies, but we will also explore his view of these dramas as belonging to it´s poetic genre and subject to Hegelian interpretations of this form. In short, this analysis will focus on a study of Hegel's aesthetics based on the mark left by Shakespeare in this philosophy. This mark, however, is not limited to Hegel's writings, but is also present in his philosophy in the face of a strong previous aesthetic influence responsible for inserting Shakespeare into German culture, giving him the role of the great liberating genius of an art that constituted, essentially, Germany. Having this in consideration, I will study the Hegelian understanding of Shakespeare: understanding in terms of content, in terms of form, and as an understanding inserted in and influenced by a certain historical and cultural movement.