The true voice of feeling: Lear's pilgrimage

Williams, Meg Harris (2011) The true voice of feeling: Lear's pilgrimage. Psychodynamic Practice: Individuals, Groups and Organisations, 17 (2). pp. 141-158. ISSN 1475-3626 (electronic) 1475-3634 (paper)

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Abstract

The injunction at the end of King Lear to ‘speak what we feel, not what we ought to say’ appears almost too easily said, by contrast with the tempestuous emotionality of the play as a whole. This article considers the role of poetic language and poetic structure in defining an essentially nonverbal or preverbal quest for identity, taking Lear and Gloucester to be the children who are father to the man. They represent complementary aspects of the baby or young child who is struggling to internalise its mother upon weaning and achieve a mode of symbol-formation. ‘The true voice of feeling’ is a quotation from Keats differentiating ‘true’ from ‘false’ art, and the baby's struggle is related to the poet's.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: King Lear, Shakespeare, Baby, Poet, Symbol, Part-Object, Weaning
Subjects: Communication (incl. disorders of) > Language
Cognitive Processes, Theory of Mind > Symbolism
Communication (incl. disorders of) > Symbols
Cognitive Processes, Theory of Mind > Arts generally (e.g. drama)
Department/People: Honorary Staff
URI: https://repository.tavistockandportman.ac.uk/id/eprint/531

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