“Is the rest silence?”. Amleto e Carl Schmitt: tragicità moderne

The article focuses on two main issues of Carl Schmitt’s Hamlet or Hecuba: the “intrusion” of historical reality into the play as source of the tragic, and the meaning of “modern tragic” in the book. A reading of Schmitt’s position in these regards is proposed against that of other critics and verified by a textual analysis of Hamlet. The modern tragic elements in Shakespeare’s text are made explicit and compared with Schmitt’s view on the tragic derived from his œuvre. Finally, an exhortation to overcoming the tragic impasse is identified in Hamlet or Hecuba and explained through Schmitt’s past works. Thereby, an aspect of Schmitt’s thought is pinpointed that sets it apart from Shakespeare’s play and exceeds its tragic conclusion.