Resource Guide: Key Articles on Cavell and Shakespeare

Stanley Cavell’s writing on Shakespeare brings ordinary language philosophy into contact with questions of scepticism, knowledge, recognition, intimacy, and theatrical form. Rather than treating plays as illustrations of a pre-existing philosophical system, Cavell reads them as places where human beings encounter the limits of what they can say, know, and acknowledge.

This guide gathers the central essays and book chapters for students and researchers beginning work on Cavell and Shakespeare. It also indicates useful secondary scholarship, research pathways, and practical ways to locate texts through Australian libraries and academic databases.

The most productive approach is comparative. Read Cavell alongside Shakespeare’s plays, then place his interpretations beside work in literary criticism, performance studies, philosophy, and intellectual history. This makes it easier to distinguish Cavell’s distinctive vocabulary from broader claims about tragedy, comedy, or moral knowledge.

Begin With Disowning Knowledge

The essential starting point is Disowning Knowledge in Six Plays of Shakespeare, first published by Cambridge University Press in 1987 and later issued in expanded editions. The volume develops Cavell’s sustained engagement with Shakespeare through readings of King Lear, Othello, Hamlet, The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, and The Tempest. Its central concern is the human impulse to reject knowledge that would require acknowledgement of another person.

“The Avoidance of Love: A Reading of King Lear” is especially important. Cavell interprets Lear’s demand for public declarations of love as an attempt to convert personal dependence into measurable evidence. The tragedy follows from a refusal to recognise what is already present in the relationships around him.

“The Wo/men’s Part: Reasonable and Unreasonable” and the discussions of Desdemona, Cordelia, and other Shakespearean figures show how gender, voice, and authority shape the possibility of acknowledgement. These chapters reward close attention to dialogue, silence, interruption, and the social conditions under which a character’s words are believed.

Read The Avoidance Of Love Closely

“The Avoidance of Love” first appeared in Must We Mean What We Say?, Cavell’s 1969 collection of philosophical essays. Although the essay is often cited as a chapter in Disowning Knowledge, its earlier publication helps explain its place in Cavell’s wider development. It connects literary interpretation with his arguments about scepticism and the demand for certainty.

Cavell does not treat Lear’s error as a simple failure of affection. Lear wants a form of proof that would remove the risks involved in loving and being loved. His tragedy therefore concerns the evasion of acknowledgement: he knows enough to respond, yet seeks an impossible guarantee before acting.

A useful research method is to place this essay beside the opening scene of King Lear, the storm scenes, and Lear’s encounter with Gloucester. Mark moments where knowledge is requested, withheld, staged, or disowned. This approach keeps philosophical claims anchored in Shakespeare’s language and dramatic structure.

Add Hamlet, Othello, And The Winter’s Tale

Cavell’s chapter on Hamlet examines the burden of proof carried by a character surrounded by uncertainty. Hamlet’s problem is not simply discovering whether Claudius is guilty. It is also the difficulty of responding to a world in which certainty about motives, appearances, and one’s own identity remains unavailable.

The reading of Othello shifts attention from evidence to trust and recognition. Othello demands a certainty that marriage cannot provide, while Iago exploits the wish to turn intimacy into visible proof. Cavell’s analysis is valuable for work on testimony, racialised suspicion, credibility, and the relationship between private feeling and public judgement.

The Winter’s Tale introduces a different possibility: forgiveness as an achievement that cannot be reduced to rational demonstration. Cavell’s discussion is particularly useful when paired with scholarship on romance, restoration, theatrical time, and the statue scene. The play’s movement from jealousy to reconciliation tests whether acknowledgement can occur after catastrophic denial.

Connect Cavell With Ordinary Language Philosophy

Cavell’s Shakespeare criticism is inseparable from his engagement with Ludwig Wittgenstein, J. L. Austin, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. His interest in ordinary language does not mean that he limits interpretation to everyday vocabulary. It means that philosophical problems are investigated through the uses, expectations, and failures of language in human situations.

Wittgenstein’s discussions of certainty, criteria, private experience, and rule-following can illuminate Cavell’s account of Shakespearean scepticism. Austin’s work on performative utterances helps clarify why declarations, vows, accusations, and commands have consequences beyond their literal content. Emerson contributes a vocabulary of self-reliance, conversation, and moral perfectionism.

For students, it is helpful to read selected passages from The Claim of Reason and Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome alongside Disowning Knowledge. Cavell’s terms can appear abstract when isolated from dramatic scenes; Shakespeare’s characters show what those terms mean when language becomes a matter of survival, responsibility, or refusal.

Consult Secondary Scholarship And Performance Criticism

Secondary writing can prevent a reading of Cavell from becoming too self-contained. Work by Stephen Mulhall, Richard Eldridge, Paul Standish, and other scholars of Cavell places his Shakespeare criticism within debates about ethics, scepticism, education, aesthetics, and democratic culture. Articles on ordinary language philosophy and literature often provide useful comparisons with Stanley Cavell’s interpretations.

It is equally important to consult Shakespeare scholars who do not write from a Cavellian perspective. Studies of performance, theatre history, gender, race, disability, colonialism, and material culture may challenge assumptions that remain implicit in philosophical readings. A production of King Lear in Melbourne, Sydney, or Brisbane can make questions of voice, embodiment, and authority feel materially different from a reading based only on the printed text.

Search journal databases for combinations such as “Cavell Shakespeare acknowledgement,” “ordinary language philosophy tragedy,” “King Lear scepticism,” and “Othello recognition.” Check publication details carefully, since a chapter in a collection may be indexed under the book title rather than the essay title.

Build An Australian Research Workflow

Australian researchers can begin with university library catalogues, the National Library of Australia, Trove, and state library collections in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, and Hobart. Interlibrary loan remains useful when a critical edition or older journal issue is unavailable locally. Many universities provide off-campus access through library proxy systems, which is particularly helpful for students studying from regional areas.

Budgeting matters in the Australian academic market. Imported monographs can be expensive in Australian dollars, and older editions of Cavell’s books may be easier to locate through library holdings or reputable second-hand sellers than through local bookshops. Always compare an ebook, paperback, and library option before purchasing a specialist title.

Researchers should also keep copyright in view. Australia’s Copyright Act 1968 permits certain fair dealing uses for research or study, but copying an entire book or redistributing scanned chapters may exceed those limits. Use stable library links, licensed databases, and properly cited excerpts when preparing a seminar handout, thesis chapter, or online reading list.

Use this guide as a starting point for a focused bibliography: begin with Disowning Knowledge, pair each chapter with the relevant play, then add Wittgenstein, Austin, Emerson, and contrasting Shakespeare scholarship. Record editions, page numbers, digital object identifiers, and library locations as you work. Subscribe to OLP & Literary Studies Online for further resources on Cavell, Shakespeare, ordinary language philosophy, forthcoming books, conferences, lectures, and calls for papers.