Reveling in and rebelling against the folly of the world: King Lear's clowns

The conventional approach to the Shakespearean clown has tended to be narrowly defined, as characters such as Feste have received the most attention. The study of the Shakespearean clown deserves a far more nuanced and encompassing approach. The term "clown" deserves a far broader definition, because villains such as Iago and insane monarchs such as Lear derive their inspiration from the same sources that led to the conception of the conventional clown. Outcasts, these characters are forced to create themselves anew in their hostile environment. This self-fashioning leads to disastrous results as they either attempt to destroy the society that has rejected them or are destroyed by society as a result of their being alien to it. In this I am influenced by Stephen Greenblatt's 'Renaissance Self-Fashioning'. I also intend to discuss the clown in relation to Mikhail Bakhtin's theories on laughter. Ultimately I hope to outline the ways that Shakespeare uses these clowns in order present the world as a great stage of fools.