Madness and mimetic violence: laughter and language in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

Author

• Kaitlyn Joy Blum

Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Harrawood, Michael

Abstract

This thesis seeks to consider the malevolent humor of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, particularly in light of the philosophical position that literary critic Rene Girard posits about what he refers to as mimetic desire. Girard contends that much of the basis of human interaction is the mediation between desires to imitate, and desires to annihilate. Using Girard’s critical writings as a frame of thought, I am interested in the circulation of cruelty in which the characters of this problem play interact with one another. American writer W.H. Auden claimed “Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s unpleasant plays”, and this thesis addresses the relationship of laughter and cruelty in Twelfth Night as the characters utilize comedy to negotiate between their simultaneous desires to imitate and destroy.

Comments

Includes bibliography.

Recommended Citation

Blum, Kaitlyn Joy, "Madness and mimetic violence: laughter and language in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night" (2013). Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2010 - 2019. 140.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_honors_2/140

Extent

65 p.

Identifier

FA00003506