The Commodity of Errors: Shakespeare and the Magic of the Value-Form. (3rd April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cosgrove, Thomas
• Is Part Of: Shakespeare. Volume 14:Number 2(2018)
• Page Start: 149
• Page End: 156
• Publication Date: 2018-04-03
• Subjects: The Comedy of Errors -- money -- Marx -- commodities -- exchange; Periodicals; 822.33
• DOI: 10.1080/17450918.2018.1455735
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1745-0918

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The Comedy of Errors is uniquely occupied with both money and magic. Yet, while the play delivers on its monetary conceit nothing remotely magical takes place in Ephesus. This article attempts to resolve this contradiction by suggesting that the form of magic particular to the play is money. Attending to the confusion of the Antipholi not only as twins, but also in the act of economic exchange, this confusion becomes legible as a breakdown of the process of circulation. With the aid of Marx, who received his own help theorising money from Shakespeare, this impasse will reveal the magical nature of money, and explain the play's transposal of qualities of the monetary onto the magical.