article 040208 |
| A
Specimen of a Commentary on Shakspeare Containing I. Notes on As you like
it. II. An Attempt to explain and illustrate various passages on a new principle
of criticism derived from Mr. Locke's doctrine of The Association of Ideas.
1794 |
by Walter Whiter |
The PALMM collection the University of Florida library has put online
materials
associated with the literature-and-psychology group at the University
of
Florida. This collection provides a text of Whiter's 1794 book on
Shakespeare.
The first sixty pages present a series of emendations of the text of
As You
Like It, much in the manner of other eighteenth-century critics. It is
in the
second section that Whiter becomes psychological: "An Attempt to
Explain and
Illustrate Various Pssages of Shakespeare on a New Principle of
Criticism
Derived from Mr. Locke's Doctirne of the Association of Ideas." Whiter
is thus
the first psychological critic, that is, the first to apply a
"scientific"
psychology to the detailed study of a text. In the process, he
discovers what
critics today would call image-clusters such as dogs-candy-flattery or
books-binding-lovers. He attributes these to what critics today would
call
"unconscious" processes in Shakespeare's mind. |
| go >> |
keywords: Walter Whiter; Shakespeare; Locke, John;
imagery;
PALMM; University of Florida; As You Like It; first psychological
critic |
url: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/journal/2004_whiter01.shtml
|
To cite this article, use this bibliographical entry: Whiter, Walter."A Specimen of a Commentary on Shakspeare
Containing I. Notes on As you like it. " PsyArt: A Hyperlink Journal for the Psychological Study of the Arts, article 040208. Available HTTP: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/journal/2004_whiter01.shtml, Dec. 31, 2004 [or whatever date you accessed the article].
|
| Received: 2004 || Published: February 10, 2004 || Copyright © ___Walt Whiter |
author info: |
| Walter Whiter |
(1758-1832) |
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