A Buddhist's Shakespeare: Affirming Self-deconstructions"In this argument, Howe applies his Buddhist perspective to some key ideas of neo-Marxists, Michel Foucault, and new historicists concerning the relations between literature and society. This perspective provides new challenges to the Marxist view that society necessarily determines our consciousness, Foucault's position that everyone in society is necessarily enclosed within a power field of competing and therefore oppositional interests, and the new historicist position that a society's established authority maintains itself in part by legitimating dissent in order to contain it. Howe proposes instead the possibility of a non-oppositional, nonideological posture in which one can stand apart from the class oppositions of Marx, the power field of Foucault, and the containment of dissent alleged by many new historicists, yet in a way which actually reduces the misery caused by social injustice." "Engaging contemporary theoretical debate, Howe draws a parallel between Jacques Derrida's ideas about "differance" - in which "presence" occurs only in "absence" - and the Buddhist idea of shunyata, the fullness of emptiness. He also shows the similarities between Derrida's and Buddhism's critiques of reason and language.". |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 61
Page 16
... audience and its response . As usual , accuracy ( objectivity ) is impossible , and so it is important not to invent an ideal audience , for that audience will merely be a projection of one's own ideal self - image into a believed ...
... audience and its response . As usual , accuracy ( objectivity ) is impossible , and so it is important not to invent an ideal audience , for that audience will merely be a projection of one's own ideal self - image into a believed ...
Page 21
... audience ( or reader ) , and changing his role as author by making it visible . Rene Girard asks , Will a critic do to Shakespeare what Derrida has done to Plato ? Shakespeare has already done it to himself . We might see him perhaps as ...
... audience ( or reader ) , and changing his role as author by making it visible . Rene Girard asks , Will a critic do to Shakespeare what Derrida has done to Plato ? Shakespeare has already done it to himself . We might see him perhaps as ...
Page 22
... audience see that Bottom's ( and Puck's ) power derives from the dissolution of the boundary between " reality " and " play , " we are likely to retreat from the loss of stable self- hood which the dream / forest seems to imply , into ...
... audience see that Bottom's ( and Puck's ) power derives from the dissolution of the boundary between " reality " and " play , " we are likely to retreat from the loss of stable self- hood which the dream / forest seems to imply , into ...
Page 23
... audience no unproblematized alternative to this threatening vision . Once more we are likely to retreat from this fearful critique of " meaning " into another self - subjugation to Elizabeth . The Merchant of Venice ( chapter 3 ) seems ...
... audience no unproblematized alternative to this threatening vision . Once more we are likely to retreat from this fearful critique of " meaning " into another self - subjugation to Elizabeth . The Merchant of Venice ( chapter 3 ) seems ...
Page 24
... audience who have been taught to be different are also forced by Caesar's funeral to concede our common humanity with these figures . We can therefore no longer believe in ourselves yet here we are . Shakespeare places us in this play ...
... audience who have been taught to be different are also forced by Caesar's funeral to concede our common humanity with these figures . We can therefore no longer believe in ourselves yet here we are . Shakespeare places us in this play ...
Contents
27 | |
Awakening The Sword of Prajna in the Visual Arts and in Richard III | 51 |
The Merchant of Venice as Sword of Prajna | 74 |
The Cause of Suffering and the Birth of Compassion in Julius Caesar | 96 |
The Emptiness of Differenceand the Six Samsaric Realms in Antony and Cleopatra | 114 |
Prince Hals Deferral as the Ground of Free Play | 146 |
Further Glimpses of Free Play in Hamlet and King Lear | 168 |
The Tempest | 191 |
Common terms and phrases
actor affirmation Antony and Cleopatra Antony's argues art of resemblance artists audience authority awareness Bassanio becomes believe Bottom Brutus Brutus's Buddhist Buddhist view character Chögyam Trungpa choose consciousness context conventional create death deconstruction deferred Derrida desire différance discourse dramatic Duccio Elizabethan emphasizes emptiness enacts example experience fact Falstaff Foucault give Greenblatt Hal's Hamlet Holbein honor Hotspur human idea identity illusion implications interpretation Jonathan Dollimore Julius Caesar king Lear lovers metadramatic Midsummer Night's Dream nature nirvana Noble ourselves painting perspective play play's point of view political Portia Prajna present prince Prospero Pyramus and Thisby realistic reality relationship Renaissance representation Richard role Roman Roy Strong samsara scene seems self-image sense Shakespeare shows Shylock situation stage Stephen Greenblatt Stephen Orgel style subversion sunyata Tennenhouse texts theater theatrical Theseus things tion transparent Trungpa truth University Press vantage point viewer visual arts
Popular passages
Page 29 - I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, — past the wit of man to say what dream it was : man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream.