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 15
... political dimension as well . This dimension takes into account not only the presumed meaning of the words on Shake- speare's page , but also those social negotiations that exist in the margins or between the lines or , as Frederic ...
... political dimension as well . This dimension takes into account not only the presumed meaning of the words on Shake- speare's page , but also those social negotiations that exist in the margins or between the lines or , as Frederic ...
Page 16
... political dimensions are simply different aspects of this Buddhist project . Our awareness of the degree to which our personal agenda informs our interpretations might alert us to that agenda's political and theatrical implications . To ...
... political dimensions are simply different aspects of this Buddhist project . Our awareness of the degree to which our personal agenda informs our interpretations might alert us to that agenda's political and theatrical implications . To ...
Page 17
... political , economic , institutional regime of the production of truth " ( Foucault 1980 , 133 ) . Because discourse levels are created by forces larger than the individual , it is such larger forces that must be changed if individuals ...
... political , economic , institutional regime of the production of truth " ( Foucault 1980 , 133 ) . Because discourse levels are created by forces larger than the individual , it is such larger forces that must be changed if individuals ...
Page 24
... political point of view , each of these plays not only exposes the " king's games " that authority requires the courtier to play , but puts us in a psychological position in which we might play these games while laughing at them . The ...
... political point of view , each of these plays not only exposes the " king's games " that authority requires the courtier to play , but puts us in a psychological position in which we might play these games while laughing at them . The ...
Page 31
... political context . It seems mainly passive , freely allowing power to flow to those who want it , and it is easily exploited by those who do treat the world as an adversary . Thus Bottom plays at the royal wedding at the royal ...
... political context . It seems mainly passive , freely allowing power to flow to those who want it , and it is easily exploited by those who do treat the world as an adversary . Thus Bottom plays at the royal wedding at the royal ...
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.