Haupttext und Subtext in Shakespeares

Abstract

Chief literary works are rarely evenly structured, but often show a pattern of interior tension and inconsistency. Frequently, there is a surface stratum which confirms the values and stereotypes of the time, but is concomitantly disclaimed by a less visible layer of unpredictability and subversion. These conflicting dimensions may be called the “overt text” and the “subtext” of the work. A number of studies are quoted which have employed the concept of “subtext,” e.g. by Constantin Stanislavski, who coined the term, and by Meinhard Winkgens who clarified the approach theoretically and applied it to a reading of Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield. The present article then proceeds to analyse Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, and discusses the play’s conflicting elements and the range of discrepant interpretations. The overt text of the play presents the comedy of a genial group of Christian friends who are temporarily threatened by an outsider’s malevolence but are finally united in mirth, harmony and mutual love. The subtext suggests a less consciously shaped ‘recalcitrant’ strain of Jewish victimisation as well as Christian selfishness and superficiality. This double structure explains why the play has been read and staged in widely diverging ways, at one extreme as a brazenly anti-Jewish comedy, at the other as a problem play full of dark undertones and social critique