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
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Page 17
... lives . Jonathan Dollimore , echoing Marx , explains why this is the case : " Human consciousness is determined by social being rather than the converse " ( Dollimore 1984 , 35 ) . This explanation , however , again implies our dilemma ...
... lives . Jonathan Dollimore , echoing Marx , explains why this is the case : " Human consciousness is determined by social being rather than the converse " ( Dollimore 1984 , 35 ) . This explanation , however , again implies our dilemma ...
Page 18
... live and determines the discourse options with which they express themselves ; in short , it is the field of power ... lives . The only alternative seems to be acquiescence to enslavement , a loss of dynamism and will . 8 Nor is there ...
... live and determines the discourse options with which they express themselves ; in short , it is the field of power ... lives . The only alternative seems to be acquiescence to enslavement , a loss of dynamism and will . 8 Nor is there ...
Page 20
... live with dignity and joy in a situation without ideas about what things are , or about why they are , or about how they should be . This may seem contradictory , for by the act of naming a religion , we seem to imply that there is a ...
... live with dignity and joy in a situation without ideas about what things are , or about why they are , or about how they should be . This may seem contradictory , for by the act of naming a religion , we seem to imply that there is a ...
Page 27
... lives by escaping from ourselves . To succeed , we would have to discover a state of consciousness , a discourse ... live without even as it exposes that world as a fiction " ( Greenblatt 1980 , 27 ; see also 12-14 ) . It is not ...
... lives by escaping from ourselves . To succeed , we would have to discover a state of consciousness , a discourse ... live without even as it exposes that world as a fiction " ( Greenblatt 1980 , 27 ; see also 12-14 ) . It is not ...
Page 34
... lives are his " sport " ( 3.2.229 , 353 ) . Human identity is also destabilized by the ironic blindness of the lovers . Hermia , thwarted in her desire to marry Lysander , says , " O Hell , to choose love by another's eyes " ( 1.1.140 ) ...
... lives are his " sport " ( 3.2.229 , 353 ) . Human identity is also destabilized by the ironic blindness of the lovers . Hermia , thwarted in her desire to marry Lysander , says , " O Hell , to choose love by another's eyes " ( 1.1.140 ) ...
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 |
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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.