This volume bears potent testimony, not only to the dense complexity of
Hamlet's emotional dynamics, but also to the enduring fascination that
audiences, adaptors, and academics have with what may well be
Shakespeare's moodiest play. Its chapters explore emotion in Hamlet,
as well as the myriad emotions surrounding Hamlet's debts to the
medieval past, its relationship to the cultural milieu in which it was
produced, its celebrated performance history, and its profound impact
beyond the early modern era. Its component chapters are not unified by a
single methodological approach. Some deal with a single emotion in
Hamlet, while others analyse the emotional trajectory of a single
character, and still others focus on a given emotional expression (e.g.,
sighing or crying). Some bring modern methodologies for studying emotion
to bear on Hamlet, others explore how Hamlet anticipates modern
discourses on emotion, and still others ask how Hamlet itself can
complicate and contribute to our current understanding of emotion.