William and William; the birth and death of subjectivity in the works of William Shakespeare and William S. Burroughs

Abstract

We open with the question of subjectivity as it is presented in Hamlet; the focus then moves to the breakdown of subjectivity as experienced in extreme situations and clinical psychosis. Gabel’s idea of continuity from psychosis to ideology (false consciousness) is used to show that William S. Burroughs is in fact a theorist of global ideological pathology. The concept of reification allows us to combine the voices of Gabel and Burroughs. This is not a study of what has been said about Burroughs or Shakespeare, our concern is with the future of the City, not the nature of the finger that points towards it. The cycle of “William & William” refers to the birth and destruction of subjectivity as defined by “conditions such as these”.