Hamlet's Heirs

'A rigorous, theoretically based mining of the assumptions and anxieties underlining life in the Western world today ... Hamlet's Heirs brilliantly questions and challenges pervasive assumptions and business as usual in the arenas of both literary theory and contemporary politics.' – Renaissance Quarterly

'Balances irreverent wit with penetrating critical insight while discussing, respectively, how Anglo-American political traditions have sought to reconcile the notions of filial entitlement and meritocratic democracy.' --Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900

'In Hamlet's Heirs, Charnes takes Hamlet through several complementary iterations, creating a multifaceted portrait: historical, psychological, theoretical, pop-cultural, and primarily political. She weaves complex readings of sociology and poststructuralism with her own expert observations into an often brilliant tapestry... Linda Charnes has given us new ways to see how Hamlet pitches us into our own time and, without a doubt, beyond.' - Shakespeare Quarterly

'I found myself turning the pages irresistably because provoked into wanting to re-read and re-think Hamlet, despite having edited Hamlet Studies for twenty-five years.' R.W. Desai, The Shakespeare Newsletter

In Hamlet's Heirs, Charnes takes Hamlet through several complementary iterations, creating a multifaceted portrait: historical, psychological, theoretical, pop-cultural, and primarily political. She weaves complex readings of sociology and poststructuralism with her own expert observations into an often brilliant tapestry. To place Hamlet in our time clarifies Shakespearean nightmares of ideological instability, cynical idealism, and disavowal--thus bringing into focus the political unconscious of the American electorate at the moment. Charnes's willingness to risk and pursue such connections is an act of critical bravery and significance...her deployment of structural and characterological analogies between eras is the metacritical triumph of the book. Linda Charnes has given us new ways to see how Hamlet pitches us into our own time and, without a doubt, beyond. - Shakespeare Quarterly

Hamlet's Heirs is a rich and suggestive meditation on Shakespeare's least closural, most culturally and, yes, politically seminal play. Linda Charnes has given us new ways to see how Hamlet pitches us into our own time and, without a doubt, beyond.' – Shakespeare Quarterly

'Charnes's willingness to risk and her deployment of structural and characterological analogies between eras is the metacritical glory of the book.' – Shakespeare Quarterly

'A rigorous, theoretically based mining of the assumptions and anxieties underlining life in the Western world today ... Hamlet's Heirs brilliantly questions and challenges pervasive assumptions and business as usual in the arenas of both literary theory and contemporary politics.' – Renaissance Quarterly

'Balances irreverent wit with penetrating critical insight while discussing, respectively, how Anglo-American political traditions have sought to reconcile the notions of filial entitlement and meritocratic democracy.' - Studies in English Literature