Hamlet, Psychoanalysis, and Contemporary Politics

Irony, Ideology, Authoritarianism, Hysteria, and the Universal Subject

Robert Samuels author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:15th Oct '26

£80.00

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Hamlet, Psychoanalysis, and Contemporary Politics cover

What if Hamlet is not just a timeless tragedy, but a mirror reflecting the fractures of our contemporary world? This work explores how a psychoanalytic reading of Hamlet—through five interlocking frames—can illuminate the psychological, political, and cultural crises of our time.

Hamlet: Psychoanalysis, Ideology, and the Crisis of Modernity

This book offers a bold reinterpretation of Hamlet through five interwoven frames—ironic, ideological, psycho-social, emotional, and scientific—to reveal how Shakespeare’s play speaks directly to today’s cultural, political, and psychological dilemmas. Drawing on Freud, Lacan, Hegel, and Marx, the author argues that Hamlet is not only a metaphorical autobiography of Shakespeare but also a profound meditation on virtue signaling, neoliberal capitalism, melancholic subjectivity, and the modern quest for certainty. By combining close textual analysis with psychoanalytic and philosophical theory, this work proposes a new model for reading literature—one that uncovers the unconscious logic of ideology and the enduring relevance of Shakespeare’s most enigmatic tragedy.

ISBN: 9798216450207

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

188 pages