The Origins of Modern Literary Theory in the Repudiation of Autobiographical Readings of Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Abstract

ABSTRACT For a century, prevailing literary theories have amputated authors from their fictional works, reducing characters to merely words on the page. Many of us who love reading literature are puzzled by the disconnect between our subjective assumptions about it and those of literary critics, who reject common-sense understanding of the vital role of the author, and of the interaction between our imagination and fictional characters. A major but unacknowledged reason for this counterintuitive trend has been efforts to buttress the traditional but increasingly dubious legend about who wrote the works of William Shakespeare. Since the late 1500s, there have been doubts as to the identity of the real Shakespeare. His name was often hyphenated as Shake-speare in early years, when hyphenated last names in England were rare then. But assumed names in plays were sometimes hyphenated. Sir Sidney Lee was one of the most prominent and influential Shakespeare scholars at the turn of the 20th century. He looked for biographical clues about Shakespeare in his Sonnets. But he quickly did an about-face in reaction to the bisexuality of these Sonnets. Lee’s reversal was pivotal in literary critics’ subsequent dogma that Shakespeare’s works, and fiction in general, need to be separated from the author. This irrational dogma was also applied to fictional characters, in part in reaction to reductionistic uses of psychoanalytic theory to “analyze” literary characters. The close study of this history may help free us from misconceptions about the real Shakespeare, and from misguided literary theory.