Ideas needed a for dissertation on Shakespeare

[WICKES]

I am doing an MA in 'Myth, Literature and the Unconscious' at Essex (basically a blend of Freud and Jung, Modernism and Greek myth). I want to write my dissertation on Shakespeare, but I'll need to work in plenty of Freud, Jung or some other depth psychologist (Adler, Klein, Lacan...anyone who wrote about and believed in an unconscious) and some myth. I'm thinking of writing about the myth of rebirth. Not very original, but what do y'all think? Which plays would you use?

[kasie]

Pericles? Winter's Tale? Can't help with the Freud/Jung/whatever aspects of it but those two have re-birth or lost and found again themes.

[WICKES]

Pericles? Winter's Tale? Can't help with the Freud/Jung/whatever aspects of it but those two have re-birth or lost and found again themes.

Thanks kasie. Yeah, I'd thought of Winter's Tale. I haven't read Pericles though.

[kelby_lake]

I believe the Romances (The Winter's Tale, Pericles, Cymbeline and The Tempest) all have some mythical element, hence why they are called the Romances.

[WICKES]

I believe the Romances (The Winter's Tale, Pericles, Cymbeline and The Tempest) all have some mythical element, hence why they are called the Romances.

I'm not really sure what is meant by rebirth tbh. It is a word often used in literary criticism. Myth is full of stories of rebirth and, as kasie mentioned, The Winter's Tale is essentially about rebirth. But I have to link it with Freud and Jung. When the depth psychologists speak of rebirth they seem to mean a fundamental change in an individual's personality or experience of the world.

[Syd A]

With all the gazillions of theses, dissertations, books, and papers written on Shakespeare's plays, you'd have to work really hard to find something that hasn't been written before. Freud, rebirth, myth - there are probably shelves of books on that already.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

With all the gazillions of theses, dissertations, books, and papers written on Shakespeare's plays, you'd have to work really hard to find something that hasn't been written before. Freud, rebirth, myth - there are probably shelves of books on that already.
Yeah, I'm with Syd. I don't want to be a downer, but the chance that you're going to think of anything original about Shakespeare is, well, near non-existent ... especially if you have to inquire about ideas on a Lit forum. It can be done, and you can of course build on some idea already in place, but if the people reading and evaluating your dissertation are looking for original ideas, you may want to think on writing about something else.

And, I'm sorry, but you're wanting to write about rebirth, and you're not even sure you know what it means? What? This confuses me.

[Atomic]

There's a lot of 'subconscious' turmoil in Macbeth, particularly Lady Macbeth's mental collapse. Shakespeare isn't even subtle in that respect; her guilt emerges as she sleeps. You could argue that the ghosts and spectres, like the ones in Julius Ceasar, Macbeth etc. are actually just a subconcious representation of guilt than actual ghosts, but you could tie in mythology with that as well, I'm sure.

As for the myth of rebirth...it can be done, but I have to agree with what other users have posted before me.

[laymonite]

Take Joyce's cue: prove by algebra that Hamlet's grandson is Shakespeare's grandfather and that he himself is the ghost of his own father!