Kabbalah, "Dybbuks", and the Religious Posthuman in the Shakespearean Worlds of "Twin Peaks"

Authors

  • Lisa S. Starks University of South Florida, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.24.03

Keywords:

Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks: The Return, Fire Walk with Me, Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces, The Secret History of Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier, David Lynch, Mark Frost, Kabbalah, religious posthuman, Shakespeare, Pericles, The Tempest, Hamlet, Macbeth

Abstract

In the series Twin Peaks, Mark Frost, David Lynch and others create a mythological framework structured by and filtered through Shakespeare in a postsecular exploration of the posthuman. Twin Peaks exemplifies a cultural postsecular turn in its treatment of the posthuman, taking the religious and spiritual perspectives to new —and often extreme—heights in its use of Kabbalah and other traditions. Twin Peaks involves spiritual dimensions that tap into other planes of existence in which struggles between benign and destructive entities or forces, multiple universes, and extradimensional, nonhuman spirits question the centrality of the human and radically challenge traditional Western notions of being. Twin Peaks draws from Shakespeare’s expansive imagination to explore these dimensions of reality that include nonhuman entities—demons, angels, and other spirits—existing beyond and outside of fabricated, human-centered worlds, with the dybbuk functioning as the embodiment of the postsecular religious posthuman.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Lisa S. Starks, University of South Florida, USA

Lisa S. Starks is Professor of English at University of South Florida. She has published many articles and book chapters on Shakespeare and related topics. She is editor of the book collection Ovid and Adaptation in Early Modern English Theater (Edinburgh University Press, 2020); author of the monograph Violence, Trauma, and Virtus in Shakespeare’s Roman Poems and Plays: Transforming Ovid (Palgrave, 2014); and co-editor, with Courtney Lehmann, of two book collections on Shakespeare and film (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002). Currently, she is working on a new monograph entitled Shakespeare, Levinas, and Adaptation, under contract with Edinburgh University Press.

References

Clarke, Bruce. –The Nonhuman.‖ The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Posthuman. Eds. Bruce Clarke and Manuela Rossini. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 141-152.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316091227.014

Dan, Joseph. –Samael, Lilith, and the Concept of Evil in Early Kabbalah.‖ AJS Review 5 (1980): 17-40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0364009400000052.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0364009400000052

Diaz, Martha L. –Evil and Vampirism in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.‖ Approaching Twin Peaks: Critical Essays on the Original Series. Eds. Eric Hoffman and Dominick Grace. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2017. 143-153.
Google Scholar

Freedman, Harry. Kabbalah: Secrecy, Scandal and the Soul. London and New York: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2019
Google Scholar

Frost, Mark. The 6 Messiahs. New York: Avon Books, 1995.
Google Scholar

Frost, Mark. The Secret History of Twin Peaks. New York: Flatiron Books, 2016. Kindle edition.
Google Scholar

Frost, Mark. Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier. New York: Flatiron Books, 2017. Kindle edition.
Google Scholar

Frost, Scott. Diane: The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper. With Kyle MacLachlan. Mac Simon and Schuster Audio, 1990. Audible Audiobook.
Google Scholar

Graham, Elaine. –The Final Frontier? Religion and Posthumanism in Film and Television.‖ Palgrave Handbook on Posthumanism in Film and Television. Eds. Michael Hauskeller, Thomas D. Philbeck, and Curtis D. Carbonell. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 361-370.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137430328_36

Hurley, Gavin F. –Beyond Angels, Beyond Demons: Post-Christian Dissociative Rhetoric within Twin Peaks.‖ Approaching Twin Peaks: Critical Essays on the Original Series. Eds. Eric Hoffman and Dominick Grace. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2017. 81-100.
Google Scholar

Lynch, David. –Scene by Scene.‖ Interview with Mark Cousins (1999). YouTube. Posted by Linda Faludi, Jul 17, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GynZIEGoiY Accessed 23 August 2021.
Google Scholar

Lynch, Jennifer. The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer. With Sheryl Lee. Twin Peaks Productions, 1990. Audible audiobook—unabridged.
Google Scholar

Moore, Elise. –The Return, Time, and Shakespearean Romance ‖ Bright Wall / Dark Room. Issue 68: Time. February 2019 https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2019/02/22/twin-peaks-the-return-shakespeare/ Accessed 24 August 2021.
Google Scholar

Stamhuis, Lindsay. –Notes from the Bookhouse: Legends of Ancient Sumeria.‖ Twentyfive Years Later. 2017 https://25yearslatersite.com/2017/11/25/notes-from-thebookhouse-legends-of-ancient-sumeria/ Accessed 24 August 2021.
Google Scholar

Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery and The Missing Pieces. (The Complete Television Series, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and The Missing Pieces.) Mark Frost and David Lynch. Blu-Ray. CBS Studios, 2016.
Google Scholar

Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series. (Twin Peaks: The Return.) Blu-Ray. Showtime, 2017.
Google Scholar

Downloads

Published

2021-12-30

How to Cite

Starks, L. S. (2021). Kabbalah, "Dybbuks", and the Religious Posthuman in the Shakespearean Worlds of "Twin Peaks". Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance, 24(39), 29–52. https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.24.03

Similar Articles

<< < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.