Melancholia Hamleta - nowa droga interpretacji czy kolejna „ modna bzdura” ?

Abstract

The article presents different views of melancholy: from the ancient understanding of a melancholic as a type of personality, through melancholy as a psychological disorder, to cultural melancholy perceived as a feeling and postmodern melancholy. Author discusses the most important’works concerning melancholy which were written during a period close to Shakespeare’s life as well as presents hypotheses about the influence of said works on the English writer’s tragedies. Romantic and psychoanalytic interpretations of Hamlet’s character with objections to them raised by later intepreters are also taken into account. Author uses comparison between the main character of Nie- Boska komedia by Zygmunt Krasiński and the main character of Shakespeare’s Hamlet to prove errors in interpretations. The article tries to read Shakespeare’s work assuming that melancholy is a feeling as opposed to being a disease. Author raises the question whether Shakespeare’s tragedy can be interpreted using categories of postmodern melancholy, which supposedly show in the work’s structure.