Author(s)

Mao Hongrui ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China

Corresponding Author

Mao Hongrui

ABSTRACT

As one of Shakespeare's four great tragedies, King Lear draws its inspiration from the legend of King Lear in British mythology. Grounded in Husserl's phenomenological theory, this essay examines Lear's transformation from arrogance to madness, culminating in a profound shift in cognitive understanding near the end of his life. The essay contends that Lear begins by immersing himself in an exaggerated sense of subjectivity, gradually reconciles with the presence of the other through conflicts with his external world, and ultimately attains intersubjective cognition, discovering inner tranquility within his madness.

KEYWORDS

Edmund Husserl, phenomenology, King Lear, Lear, cognitive analysis

CITE THIS PAPER

Mao Hongrui, Literature and Philosophy: A Cognitive Analysis of "King Lear" from the Perspective of Phenomenology. Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2024) Vol. 7: 13-21. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langl.2024.070803.

REFERENCES

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[3] Natanson, M. The Erotic Bird: Phenomenology in Literature. Princeton University Press, 2021.
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[7] Shakespeare, William. King Lear. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, edited by Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, 2nd ed., Clarendon Press, 2005, pp. 1213-1252.
[8] Oliver, K. "The Gestation of the Other in Phenomenology." Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy, vol. 2, no. 1, 1995, pp. 79-116.  
[9] Honderich, T., editor. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford University Press, 1995.
[10] Dodd, W. "Impossible Worlds: What Happens in 'King Lear', Act 1, Scene 1?" Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 4, 1999, pp. 477-507. 
[11] Moran, D. "From Empathy to Intersubjectivity: The Phenomenological Approach." Empathy, Intersubjectivity, and the Social World, edited by A. Bortolan and E. Magrì, Springer, 2022, pp. 23-44. 
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