햄릿의 독백에 나타난 중동태적 사유와 주체 형성

Abstract

This paper examines Hamlet’s soliloquies through the lens of the middle voice, drawing on Koichiro Kokubun’s reinterpretation of subjectivity, action, and responsibility. Unlike the active/passive dichotomy, the middle voice captures a subject who both acts and is acted upon within the same event. Hamlet, situated between action and delay, embodies this middle-voiced structure, internalizing external imperatives while reflecting on them. His soliloquies reveal a recursive mode of thought that neither affirms decisive agency nor succumbs to mere passivity. This paper argues that Hamlet’s hesitation is not a symptom of indecision but a mode of ethical inquiry shaped by the interplay between inward transformation and external command. By reframing Hamlet as a middle-voiced subject, this study offers an alternative to traditional character-based or will-centered interpretations, and suggests that the middle voice provides a critical framework for rethinking early-modern subject formation and ethical responsibility in Shakespeare’s language.