R. A. Foakes: Shakespeare and Violence.

• Alexander Shurbanov

The news is that, after decades of fierce attacks and spiteful denunciation, essentialism in the critical interpretation of Shakespeare’s drama is not dead. In his latest book R. A. Foakes states unequivocally and repeatedly his conviction that unprovoked or, as he prefers to call it, primal violence (the “motiveless Malignity” noticed by Coleridge in Iago’s character) is an irradicable part of human nature, especially prominent in its male representatives, who instinctively seek to impose their preeminence and dominance over each other in the most uncompromising ways just as their counterparts in the animal kingdom do. As for the social or cultural factors, they are not altogether excluded from the picture but their role is merely contributive. Brutal aggression against one’s fellow humans has always been a driving force of history and is reflected as a central truth of life in the sacred and secular writings of every age.

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