Отвръщането на кръга. Бележки върху „Венецианският търговец“

The article analyses the theme of return and the figure of the circle in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice,” showing that through them the author describes both the play itself and the principle at work at the basis of law. The plot with the three caskets is interpreted as a form of self-modelling of the literary work, where the silver casket with its inscription (“Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves”) serves as an allegory of the compositional choices made in the comedy. The article also focuses on the question of the doubles, which is in contrast with the logic of return. In the study, two kinds of doubling are distinguished. On the one hand, doubling is interpreted in the sense of redoubling and splitting. On the other hand, it is understood as an element introducing non-coincidence and non-identity of the circle with itself.