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This book offers a close philosophical reading of King Lear and Timon of Athens which provides insights into the groundbreaking ontological discourse on poverty and money. Analysis of the discourse of poverty and the critique of money helps to read Shakespeare philosophically and opens new reflections on central questions of our own time.

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Introduction: Shakespeare and Philosophy 1. Allegory and the Combustion of Representation 2. This is I, Hamlet the Dane 3. Macbeth, multitudinous seas incarnadanine: A Grammar of Power, a Grammar of potentia 4. The Bloody Legislation 5. ´Thou art the thing itself´ 6. Timon of Athens: ´Thou the common whore´ 7. Conclusion

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"This a bravura book, one that has much to teach contemporary Shakespeare studies." - Shakespeare Quarterly

"This difficult but rewarding study focuses on the representation of subjectivityand value in four of Shakespeare´s tragedies." - Renaissance Quarterly

"This is an unusual book, a wild book at times, but such is the timely topic of poverty. What drives it to its scholarly and not always scholarly the author calls it ´political´ conclusion, is the new sense of history that is imminent in poverty as it is in Shakespeare." - Anselm Haverkamp, New York University, USA

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Margherita Pascucci has a PhD from New York University, USA and a Doctor Philosophiae from Viadrina Universität, Germany. She was the Marie Curie Fellow at Royal Holloway, UK from 2008-2010. She is the author of three monographs in Italian Causa sui. Saggio sul capitale e il virtuale, La Potenza della povertà. Marx legge Spinoza, and Il Pensiero di Walter Benjamin. Un´Introduzione.

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