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 60
Page 20
... 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 system of belief to which we can ...
... 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 system of belief to which we can ...
Page 22
... situations is Bottom , a character who ( despite obvious differences ) has some quali- ties that Buddhism associates with wisdom : he does not intellectually cate- gorize experience ; he lacks desire ; and he has a nonadversarial ...
... situations is Bottom , a character who ( despite obvious differences ) has some quali- ties that Buddhism associates with wisdom : he does not intellectually cate- gorize experience ; he lacks desire ; and he has a nonadversarial ...
Page 24
... situation the prince offers an example of the fullness possible within the emptiness of " presence . " For us in the audience , his nonjudgmental model suggests that it is possible to stand for peace and justice without 24 INTRODUCTION.
... situation the prince offers an example of the fullness possible within the emptiness of " presence . " For us in the audience , his nonjudgmental model suggests that it is possible to stand for peace and justice without 24 INTRODUCTION.
Page 25
... situation leads to a change ; he comes to accept his inevitable death , loses attachment to a " self , " and becomes desireless , goal - less , without plan , beyond hope and fear and guilt , untied either to past or future , fully ...
... situation leads to a change ; he comes to accept his inevitable death , loses attachment to a " self , " and becomes desireless , goal - less , without plan , beyond hope and fear and guilt , untied either to past or future , fully ...
Page 28
... situation . He is equally unbounded when offstage in " normal " life . He does not discriminate between the situations in which he finds himself but , as Ronald Miller observes , simply accepts each of them " as perfectly ordinary ...
... situation . He is equally unbounded when offstage in " normal " life . He does not discriminate between the situations in which he finds himself but , as Ronald Miller observes , simply accepts each of them " as perfectly ordinary ...
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.