Individual identity in William Shakespeare's "Richard III" and "Macbeth".

This thesis applies a cultural materialist approach to Renaissance conceptions of identity formation, inwardness, and transgression as presented in William Shakespeare's Richard III and Macbeth. The plays are examined in relation to relevant Renaissance political documents, using paradigms provided by cultural theorists such as Stephen Greenblatt, Jonathan Dollimore, Michel Foucault and Judith Butler. In both Richard's and Macbeth's usurpations of their respective crowns, neither character is ever fully extracted from the social, political, and cultural regimes that initiate their rebellious acts to begin with. Rhetoric of inwardness in the plays is a response to increased social regulation of appearance and conduct, but also allows each titular character to explore the limits of authority through transgression. These plays explore the ways in which the individual is politicized.