The Phantom Catastrophe: Hamlet’s Rank Inheritance

Alice Gavin

Origin: Static Issue 07
Content: Text

A catastrophe, according to one dramatic definition of the term, is that which 'brings the action to its conclusion' (Jenkins). What then might be said of Prince Hamlet's infamous inaction, his 'inhibition' as Freud called it? This paper sets out to suggest that, rather than simply lacking a catastrophe in the sense aforementioned, what Hamlet in fact stages is a 'phantom catastrophe', a catastrophe that exceeds the action; hesitant in its appraisal of Nicholas Abraham's attempt to 'cure' the Prince of his inheritance of a havoc-wreaking family secret by means of a psychoanalytic 'Sixth Act', it seeks instead to demonstrate that it is in fact exactly the 'aberrant' nature of this inheritance that provides the possibility of its over-turning.

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Contributor:

Alice Gavin is a doctoral student at the London Consortium; her PhD project sets out to investigate the modernist project of total inclusion – a complete capturing of the human – in terms of an architecturally-influenced investigation of point of view and perspective, pursuing readings of texts such as Beckett's Film. She has a BA in Modern History and English from the University of Oxford and an MA in European Culture from UCL.