Shakespeare as Rorschach: A Response to David Hillman

[...]commentators have analogized Shakespeare's writing to Rorschach inkblots, owing to the mental freedom that both forms unlock.4 Indeed, while debates in our classrooms might tempt us to say that Shakespeare's works give us the choice of rabbit or duck, it is surely more accurate to not...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Shakespeare quarterly 2013-10, Vol.64 (3), p.334-342
Main Author:	Bruster, Douglas
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	1500-1599 Antony and Cleopatra Conversation Creativity criticism drama English Literature Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 Hillman, David Hillman, Shakespeare, David (David A.)., William Interpretations Jonson, Ben (1573-1637) Language Literary criticism Love Metaphor Poets Positions Psychoanalysis Psychoanalysis and literature psychoanalytic approach Psychoanalytic criticism Rorschach test Rorschach, Hermann Separate Works Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, William (1564-1616) Shakespearean plays Sixteenth Century Transference Transference (Psychology) in literature William Shakespeare
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Summary:	[...]commentators have analogized Shakespeare's writing to Rorschach inkblots, owing to the mental freedom that both forms unlock.4 Indeed, while debates in our classrooms might tempt us to say that Shakespeare's works give us the choice of rabbit or duck, it is surely more accurate to note that they present us with many more options-and that they do so by being less precise than the binary paradigm would suggest.5 Rather than either/or, that is, the deliquescent forms of Antony and Cleopatra (as those in so many of his works) insist on the multiplicity of desire and possibility. What's dangerous about the Rorschach analogy is less this openness than the price it involves. Because the inkblot test has become a Hollywood metaphor for psychological trickery, a pseudoscientific gimmick used to support mystification and manipulation, it serves as an uncomfortable metaphor for criticism-literary and otherwise-convinced of the unseen, as well as of conversation's ability to plumb it.
ISSN:	0037-3222 1538-3555 1538-3555