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Chapter 3 - Seeing and Speaking in Pericles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2025

Kent Lehnhof
Affiliation:
Chapman University, California
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Summary

Pericles, Prince of Tyre has a great deal to say about listening, especially in contrast to looking. This Chapter demonstrates that in Pericles visual modes of perception are imbricated in regimes of power and exploitation, while audition is presented as a way out. When characters in the play lend their ears to sounds and voices that are all-too-often silenced, ignored, or drowned out – especially those belonging to women and the natural world – they are miraculously redeemed and regenerated. Marina’s voice, in particular, drives the drama toward its happy conclusion. To account for the power of her voice, I turn to Hélène Cixous, Julia Kristeva, and David Kleinberg-Levin, each of whom takes aim at the oppressiveness of logocentrism, celebrating instead the enlivening energies of the pre-semantic and extra-verbal. As do these authors, Pericles associates the plenipotent voice of the play with the feminine, the more-than-human, and the beyond-meaning, indicating that these can usher us into productive and ethical relationships with others and our world.

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  • Seeing and Speaking in Pericles
  • Kent Lehnhof, Chapman University, California
  • Book: Voice and Ethics in Shakespeare's Late Plays
  • Online publication: 03 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009613897.005
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  • Seeing and Speaking in Pericles
  • Kent Lehnhof, Chapman University, California
  • Book: Voice and Ethics in Shakespeare's Late Plays
  • Online publication: 03 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009613897.005
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Seeing and Speaking in Pericles
  • Kent Lehnhof, Chapman University, California
  • Book: Voice and Ethics in Shakespeare's Late Plays
  • Online publication: 03 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009613897.005
Available formats
×