Universals in the bush

the case of hamlet

Dominique Brancher

pp. 143-162

in: Ina Habermann, Michelle Witen (eds), Shakespeare and space, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Abstract

In this essay, Dominique Brancher takes her cue from Laura Bohannan's classic article, "Shakespeare in the Bush" (Natural History 75:28–33, 1966), which describes Bohannan's attempt to prove the existence of human universals by confronting the Tiv people with Shakespeare's play. Even if the need, and the ability, to produce narrative, poetry and folklore is seen as universal, Brancher asks whether there can be such things as universal literary works, and how they come to appear universal. She argues that none of the wide range of approaches she examines can satisfactorily explain Hamlet's seeming universality. If anything, the universal appeal lies in what Stephen Greenblatt calls "theatrical mobility": the cultural spaces that are opened up by the story's, and the eponymous character's migrations.

Cited authors

Shakespeare William

Brancher Dominique