Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The structure and the guiding impulse of the book originate in a way of exploring Shakespeare pioneered in the works of Stanley Cavell. In readings of Othello and King Lear Cavell foregrounds the ways in which Shakespearean tragedy is the drama of skepticism. The discussion in the book pertains simultaneously to Shakespeare's comedies in particular and to the aims of literary study as a whole. Cavell's suggestion that the tragedies of Lear and Othello reveal something about a human tendency to warp or distort the nature of one's connection to others not only pertains to the comedies but also deserves commentary in terms of its ramifications for scholarly relation to literary art. Various stripes of skeptical doubt come together in a peculiar way when one raises a question about the place of literature in their lives.