Philosophers and Thespians: Thinking Performance (Cultural Memory in the Present) - Hardcover

Rokem, Freddie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0804763496 ISBN 13: 9780804763493

Verlag: Stanford University Press, 2009

Inhaltsangabe

The interaction between philosophy and theater or performance has recently become an important and innovative area of inquiry. Philosophers and Thespians contributes to this emerging field by looking at four direct encounters between philosophers and thespians, beginning with Socrates, Agathon, and Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium and ending with a discussion between Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht about a short text by Franz Kafka. Rokem also examines in detail Hamlet's complex and tragic split identity as both philosopher and thespian, as well as the intense correspondence between Friedrich Nietzsche and August Strindberg. His investigations—which move between the fictional and the historical—culminate in a comprehensive discussion of the notions of performance and performativity as derived from the discursive practices of philosophy and performance. At times competitive or mutually exclusive, these discourses also merge and engage with each other in creative ways.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Freddie Rokem, author of the prizewinning Performing History: Theatrical Representations of the Past in Contemporary Theatre, is the Emanuel Herzikowitz Professor for 19th and 20th-Century Art at Tel Aviv University.

Freddie Rokem, author of the prizewinning Performing History: Theatrical Representations of the Past in Contemporary Theatre, is the Emanuel Herzikowitz Professor for 19th and 20th-Century Art at Tel Aviv University.

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PHILOSOPHERS AND THESPIANS

Thinking PerformanceBy Freddie Rokem

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 2010 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8047-6349-3

Contents

Preface............................................................................................................xiIntroduction.......................................................................................................11 The First Encounter: Plato's Symposium and the Ancient Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry.....................212 "Who's There?" Hamlet as Philosopher and Thespian................................................................593 Stagings of the Self: The Nietzsche-Strindberg Correspondence....................................................874 Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht Discuss Franz Kafka: Exilic Journeys..........................................1185 Accidents and Catastrophic Constellations: Performative Agendas..................................................1416 Wishes, Promises, and Threats: The Performative Storytelling of Walter Benjamin..................................177Notes..............................................................................................................199Index..............................................................................................................219

Chapter One

The First Encounter

PLATO'S Symposium AND THE ANCIENT QUARREL BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND POETRY

And then I came to the place where three roads meet. -Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus Crito, we ought to offer a cock to Asclepius. See to it, and don't forget. -Socrates' last words as reported in the Phaedo

The earliest encounter between a philosopher and thespians that has been recorded in detail is Socrates' meeting with the playwrights Agathon and Aristophanes. It takes place in Plato's dialogue the Symposium, where the banquet celebrating Agathon's victory at the Lenaean theatre festival in 416 B.C. is depicted. Plato portrayed in vivid detail the select group of Athenians gathered in Agathon's house during the second night after his triumph. Through this portrayal, in particular he drew attention not only to the speeches eulogizing Eros presented on this occasion but also to the setting and the interactions among the participants at the event. The Symposium is an outstanding example of Plato's abilities as a dramatic writer. Diogenes Latius even claimed that before turning to philosophy, Plato had been both a wrestler and a writer of tragedies: "He wrestled in the Isthmian Games-this is stated by Dicaearchus in his first book On Lives-and that he applied himself to painting and wrote poems, first dithyrambs, afterwards lyric poems and tragedies." In the Symposium Plato has employed sophisticated narrative techniques and dramatic devices to promote Socrates' philosophical ideas. However, at the same time, he has distanced himself from his admired teacher, and even severely criticized him.

Among Plato's dialogues the Symposium clearly stands out as an excellent example of literary sophistication. Highlighted are the philosophical and ideological contents of the eulogies praising Eros and what they represent within the framework of the dialogue as well as within classical Greek culture (including examples from its rich corpus of dramatic literature). In addition the complex relationships between the speakers themselves and their behavior have been sharply placed in focus. These minute details are an integral aspect of Plato's text, tightly weaving philosophical arguments and human behavior together, making them reflect and comment on each other simultaneously on many levels. The depiction of the encounter between philosophical and theatrical practices in the Symposium presents a showdown or a competition between the two practices, directly exemplified by the interactions between Socrates and the two playwrights Agathon and Aristophanes. Furthermore attention is drawn to the characteristics of their respective discursive practices as well as to their complex personal relationships. Plato's dialogue weaves philosophical and literary issues together in complex juxtapositions that this chapter highlights from several vantage points.

Finally, however, I hope to show that the Symposium contains contradictory tensions that can probably never be fully resolved. At the same time as the Symposium (as an instance of Plato's more comprehensive anti-aesthetic stance) directs a sophisticated attack against the two playwrights and the practices of theatre in general, by using sophisticated literary and dramatic techniques, it creates a comprehensive discursive universe, evoking intra- and intertextual intersections where the competitors become integrated within the constantly expanding dialogical encounter examined in this book. Plato ends the Symposium with a direct confrontation between Socrates, his philosopher-hero, on the one hand, and both Agathon, who wrote tragedies (though none of them have been preserved), and Aristophanes, who wrote comedies, on the other. This fact has major implications for the interactions between the philosophical and the thespian discourses, not only within the dialogue itself, but also within the more comprehensive philosophical and performative contexts highlighted. Finally, though in a very sophisticated and implicit manner, Plato also raises some serious doubts concerning Socrates' philosophical authority as well as the integrity of his character. In order to untangle these complex contradictions, I begin by examining the ways in which the narrative techniques of the Symposium serve as a reflection of Plato's philosophical ideas.

Philosophy and Narrative Technique

The Symposium is a brilliant poetic demonstration of Plato's philosophy, showing that narratives are nothing but faint shadows of the events they depict (or are about), just as the objects in this world-like for example the chairs and the tables in our homes and classrooms, according to Plato's theory of Ideas-are nothing but faded copies of the eternal Ideas of these objects. The narrative techniques of the Symposium mirror this philosophical argument, showing in effect that not even Plato's own philosophical dialogue can fully represent the truth. The narrative presented in the dialogue is a report given by Apollodorus to an unknown interlocutor about the celebration in honor of Agathon. Apollodorus's report is based on what Aristodemus, who was present at the party, has previously reported to Apollodorus. And since Apollodorus had just given an account of this celebration to another interlocutor called Glaucon a few days earlier, he says that "your question does not find me unprepared" (458, 172a) to tell what happened at the "gathering at Agathon's when Socrates, Alcibiades, and their friends had dinner together [and tell] about the speeches they made on Love" (458, 172 b).

In the opening section of the Symposium, Apollodorus carefully informs his interlocutor (and us) that he had heard about these events from Aristodemus, one of Socrates' ardent admirers, who had accompanied Socrates to the celebration (in Apollodorus's careful formulation) "because, I think, he was obsessed with Socrates-one of the worst cases at that time" (459, 173b). Through its narrative technique-having one narrator present a report he has heard from another narrator-the dialogue is actually twice removed from the banquet that...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2009
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0804763496
• ISBN 13: 9780804763493
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 248
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar