King Lear in Their Time: On Bloom and Cavell on Shakespeare

Abstract

Both Harold Bloom and Stanley Cavell are distinguished humanists who have established their considerable reputations in fields other than Shakespeare studies. Bloom achieved early recognition as a literary critic and theorist while focusing his attention chiefly on Romantic and modern poetry. Cavell is a philosopher whose thought mainly develops from reflections on the “ordinary language” philosophy of J. L. Austin and the later writing of Ludwig Wittgenstein, especially his Philosophical Investigations. However, Bloom and Cavell both subsequently published books on Shakespearean drama.