The emblem tradition in Shakespeare’s plays: mirror-effects and anamorphoses

2017

ABSTRACT: An emblem is a witty combination of various texts and one image which delivers a moral message. The emblem is an art of the gaze, the purpose of which is to lead the eye to the transcendent ideas lying behind the veil of worldly appearances. Shakespeare was obviously sensitive to the visual potential of emblems. This paper aims to show that Shakespeare drew upon the modus operandi of emblems but rejected the emblem as a fixed ideological discourse. Shakespeare used the emblem in an anamorphic way to confront the spectator with the shifting world he lives in. KEYWORDS: emblems; theater; Shakespeare. RESUMEN: Un emblema es una ingeniosa combinacion de varios textos y una imagen que …