ABSTRACT
This chapter treats Richard as a specific form of cathexis: onto him are cast dueling images of nature, and through him glimpse the remediation of the human/nature relationship. As Shakespeare's play demonstrates, the theme of posthumous "malice" applies with stunning relevance to Richard himself. Since 1924, the Richard III Society has, with singular devotion, attempted to overhaul Richard's reputation. Shakespeare's Richard III has a powerful hold on the historical imagination, so it is unsurprising that the recently recovered skeleton has been examined with the goal of confirming or refuting his portrayal in this play. Analogously, Richard III demonstrates that nature is at once the raw material of which everything consists and also an elusive entity, accessible only through representation and moldable for political ends. Richard III plays on the co-optation of the erotic, its taming-through-signifying practices, in its two bizarre wooing scenes. As a creature of nature, as nature's "black intelligencer", Richard is banished to the realm of the unnatural.
