SAA Seminar: “Shakespeare & the Mind: Cognition, Emotion, Affect"

SAA Seminar-by-Zoom

This past Saturday (13 June) I participated in a Zoom meeting for the seminar, “Shakespeare and the Mind: Cognition, Emotion, Affect,” which had been postponed due to COVID-19 and the demands it created for those switching to online instruction. The seminar was for the 2020 conference of the Shakespeare Association of America, which had been scheduled for 15-18 April 2020 in Denver, Colorado, but the in-person element of the conference had been canceled because of the pandemic. Many of the events met over Zoom, and some posted these on social media for others to audit, but this was a bonus not in the original job description for seminar and workshop leaders (no one expected last June that there would be a pandemic, so familiarity with Zoom or other online conferencing platforms was not a requirement, and doing the extra work of managing auditors was also not expected, understandably, but it was unfortunate to miss out on so many of the conference events).

Seminar participants read one another’s papers in advance. They were impressive, and it was an honor to have been accepted into the seminar with such an excellent group.

Seminar Participants & Papers:

“Broken Trust and the Trope of Emotional Tears in King Lear” - Lalita Pandit Hogan, University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse

“‘A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass’: Shakespeare and the Suffering Imagination” - Niall Kennedy, Queen’s University Belfast

“Disability, Emotional Contagion, and the Affective Economy of Fear in The Witch of Edmonton (1621)” - Katey Roden, 
Gonzaga University

“Collective Affect of the 1970s: Vladimir Vysotsky's Hamlet” - Sabina Amanbayeva, Oklahoma City University

“A Raging Mother, a Dead Child and a Suicidal Prince: the Theatre of Sympathy in King John and Hamlet” - Elizabeth K. Harper, University of Hong Kong

“Empathy Is Complicated: A Midsummer Night’s Dream” - Patrick C. Hogan, University of Connecticut

“Power, Prejudice, and Perspective: Human Nature in Shakespeare’s Plays Through the Lens of Social Psychology” - Michelle N. Shiota, Arizona State University

Chair: Bradley Irish, Arizona State University

Seminar participants worked and discussed with the understanding that the papers were works-in-progress and not offered for the general public, so I'll confine my comments here mostly to my own paper and to chapters from books by two of the seminar consultants that influenced my paper.

My paper was called “Transformations in Hamlet: From Fear to Love’s Perfection Through Labors of Gratitude & Regret.” It was a brief summation of ideas I explored last year in a series on this blog on “Labors of Gratitude & Regret” (links later in this blog post).

Both Katy Roden and I had papers that dealt in part with fear, and Katey's paper in particular made me think of the observation that sometimes, what we fear in others may represent what we're afraid to recognize in ourselves: Hence it is claimed, for example, that homophobics may be denying or afraid of the homosexual tendencies within themselves.

My Paper Abstract:
Shakespeare’s Hamlet contains characters who display significant fear, gratitude, and regret. At the time of the play’s writing or revision by Shakespeare, The Book of Common Prayer required a certain scripture reading numerous times every year which claimed, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear...” (1 Jn 4:18, Geneva). Patrick Colm Hogan’s work on emotion explains how regret can be potentially transformative, and Lewis Hyde’s work on gifts, how gratitude can also be life-changing. Both result in feelings of indebtedness: in the case of gratitude, for the imbalance caused by the reception of a potentially life-changing gift; in the case of regret, for imbalances or injustices caused by the harm we do. Both regret and gratitude can play a part in love’s perfection. As key characters in the play process gratitude and regret, a number of them are slowly changed, becoming less fearful of danger or death. In spite of the play’s many ambiguities, Hamlet, Ophelia, and Gertrude can be seen in this light. Hogan, Hyde, and key biblical allusions in the play can help us understand how Shakespeare, his players, and early audiences may have understood fear, gratitude, and regret.

Cognition, Emotion, Affect: A Fresh Perspective on Hamlet & the Bible
For those of you who know me as that guy who keeps blogging about Hamlet and the Bible, it may sound strange to find me in a seminar with this kind of title. But in fact, considering the emotions of fear, gratitude and regret offered me a new way to view and capsulize some of my ideas.

To prepare for the seminar, the writing of my blog series on "Labors of Gratitude and Regret" and the paper that grew out of it, my reading list included a book by the chair, Bradley Irish, which had a chapter on the "Fearful & Fearsome Essex."

Brad's chapter prompted me to think: Fear is quite important in Early Modern English Christianity, fear of God being often-cited as necessary of faithful and humble people ("Have you know fear of the Lord?"). A similar fear being extended to monarchs, often viewed as representatives of the divine on earth (and which Laertes hints at when he refers to Claudius in 1.2 as "dread lord").

But the Christian Biblical and mystical traditions also view fear as something to be transcended, as in a passage in 1 John 4, read in church during Shakespeare’s lifetime multiple times a year: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear… .” Many fear God, but the more we understand and become generous, merciful and wise like the divine, or like mystics swept up into the heart of God, the less we fear, and the more we find peace (according to some, at least).

So - what perfects love, so as to cast out fear? Perhaps gratitude and regret are keys. The work of Patrick Hogan and Lewis Hyde make me inclined to think so, especially through Hogan's book, What Literature Teaches Us about Emotion (2011) and Hyde's book, The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property (1983).

In many biblical narratives and in the Book of Common Prayer, gratitude leads to thanksgiving & inspires generosity, and regret leads to repentance and reconciliation. The potential transformations that come from gratitude and regret are often important aspects of many character arcs in stories and plays.

I am grateful especially to Patrick Colm Hogan, but also to Bradley Irish and other seminar participants, for the way their examination of emotion nudged me toward considering how Biblical narratives and religious literature tended to function for people in Early Modern society not only as a focus of worship and morals, but also as formulae for how to deal with emotions in what was then considered healthy and socially acceptable ways:

- Don't be ungrateful for good gifts of fate, or heaven, providence, or other human beings.
- Be generous as God and others have been generous with you.
- Be thereby transformed through gratitude. 

- Don't refuse to feel regret for mistakes, but embrace the regret and repent of wrongdoing.
- Don't be poisoned by anger and revenge.
- Reconcile with those you have hurt, and be transformed by regret and repentance.

- Be open to wonder and awe and humble in the presence of life's mysteries.

The literature of the Bible, in its own way, offers models for healthy ways to understand what to do with powerful emotions. These models are often outdated and need to be read critically, but still, they had an influence on Shakespeare's writing and that of other writers of his age.

Series of blog posts on which my paper was based:
For those new to this blog and interested in that series of blog posts from last year which led to my seminar paper in a later revised and condensed form, you can find them at the following links.

An early post out of which many of my ideas grew was on Love, Fear, and Yoda. This was followed by the series on "Labors of Gratitude and Regret."

The first part in the series introduces the idea of "Labors of Gratitude" using the story, "Hansel & Gretel" by the Brothers Grimm; the last part in the series, part 16, presents an overview followed by an index of all the posts in the series:

Index of posts in the series on "Labors of Gratitude and Regret" in Hamlet:

Part 1: Gifts & labors of gratitude in Hansel & Gretel - (prep. for Hamlet) - 8/12/19

Part 2: Hamlet's Descent & Arc Toward Mercy: Labors of Gratitude and Regret in Hamlet - 8/19/19

Part 3: Polonius' Labor of Regret - 8/26/19

Part 4: Into Dad's Circle of Fear & Flattery: Laertes' Labors of Gratitude & Regret, 1.2 - 9/3/19

Part 5: Fear & Hypocrisy; Laertes’ Labors of Gratitude & Regret, Hamlet 1.3 - 9/9/19

Part 6: Fearsome, Flattered, Glimpsing Transformation: Laertes’ Labors of Gratitude & Regret, 4.5 - 9/17/19

Part 7: Laertes' Labors of Gratitude & Regret (Toxic Masculinity Distrats While Ophelia Drowns, Hamlet 4.7 - 9/24/19

Part 8: Laertes' Labors of Gratitude & Regret (Laertes & Hamlet Fight at Ophelia’s Grave, Hamlet 5.1 - 10/01/19

Part 9: Gertrude as Recipient & Source of Gifts: Labors of Gratitude & Regret in Hamlet - 10/8/19

Part 10: Laertes' Labors of Gratitude & Regret: Laertes Turns, but Only When Facing Death, 5.2 - 10/15/19

Part 11: Does Hamlet & Ophelia’s Love Change Them? (Labors of Gratitude & Regret in Hamlet) - 10/21/19

Part 12: Claudius Resists Gift-Dynamics & Grace (Labors of Gratitude & Regret in Hamlet) - 10/29/19

Part 13: Does Fortinbras Benefit from Gratitude or Regret (or is he more a cipher for James VI & I)? - 11/05/19

Part 14: Horatio's Gift-Dynamics & Christ-Figures Shifting Ground in Hamlet 1.1 - 11/19/19

Part 15: Hamlet & Horatio's Friendship: Mutual, Reciprocal, Transformative, Free - 11/26/19

Part 16: Why Gift-Dynamics Matter for Hamlet & the Bible - 12/3/19

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ANNOUNCEMENT:
FREE TO VIEW ON YOUTUBE FROM SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Shakespeare's Globe has made a series of recorded productions available for free on YouTube. For the next two weeks (15-28 June, 2020), a summer 2013 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream can be viewed FOR FREE.

To view on YouTube, click here.

To donate to Shakespeare's Globe, click here.

You may have read that the financial pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic may cause Shakespeare's Globe to close. This could be prevented with donations from viewers around the world. As in the past, I also urge bog readers to support their local theaters and arts organizations, which have also been affected.

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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over any other, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to point out how the Bible may have influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.

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Thanks for reading!
My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.

Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html

I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider subscribing.