Letteratura inglese 2

ANOTHERNESS

Alternative to the more common notion of otherness. There is a third option, in

addition to the extremes of (1) absorbing them so that their distinctness is not

recognized and (2) the irreconcilable alienation and opposition between us and them

found in otherness.

Subjecthood

While an Other is a mere object, an Another retains the status as a subject with its

integrity and that we consider part of a community in some sense.

Social: signs in civil right movement (I Am a Man).

Ecological: nature as "kin" (relative) in indigenous societies, animistic views (nature

has its own life), animals are subjects of a life.

Similarity and continuity

No absolute difference as in otherness. Another is in some way like us even while it is

different. No absolute separation or alienation but rather some kind continuity.

Social: sense of shared humanity, the racial or gender boundary is permeable.

Ecological: animals have intelligence and emotion, no division between humans and

nonhuman nature (deep ecology), humans are not alienated from nature.

Distinctness

There is similarity and continuity, but another has its own distinctness, it is not

reducible to us.

Social: experience of other social groups is recognized and valued.

Ecological: anthropomorphism of nature is rejected, nature is not just a cultural

construct, it has a quality of life distinct from human life.

Complexity

Another has internal differences and complexity, rather than being all the same.

Social: the social group is recognized as including all different kinds of people.

Ecological: each ecosystem is unique, nature is complex.

Changeability

Another has complexity and difference over time, capable of change, not simple over

time and not unchanging.

Social: social groups, including "primitives", change.

Ecological: ecosystems and species change.

Agency

Another has its own agency, not passive, not dependent on us for action.

Social: members of every social group are capable of their own agency and are not

helpless or passive. Ecological: nature can teach us and can change us.

Visibility

The existence of Another is recognized and recognizable, rather than invisible.

Social: the social group is visible in media or among political representatives.

Ecological: maps with details of vegetation and water flow, nature is not simply a

background.

Voice

Another has its own voice, opportunity to be heard. If it does not have a human,

somehow its voice is given representation.

Social: the social group is given a voice in politics or in the arts.

Ecological: somehow, we "hear" the voice of animals, plants, and ecosystems

(environmental groups).

Concrete and specific

Another is no abstraction but rather a concrete reality.

Social: we see each person as a unique individual, rather than as a stereotype or

simply as a member of a group.

Ecological: each animal, plant, and ecosystem is recognized as unique. "Nature" is not

a general abstraction but is an actual field of individual beings.

Value

Another has intrinsic value rather than mere instrumental value. There may, however,

be some sense of hierarchy of value.

Social: every social group and member of the group has intrinsic value.

Ecological: nature has intrinsic value.

Said – colonial power is justified, and maintained not only by raw power and naked

aggression based on technological superiority and military might but also by the "soft"

power of ideology (visible or unconscious).

The other is not, in any simple way, the direct opposite of the self.

The two exist in a complex relation that undermines any simplistic conception of

self/other, inside/outside, center/margin.

Nor is the other a stable and unchanging entity.

Site/location upon which we project on the qualities that we (individuals, group,

nation) most fear or dislike of ourselves.

The other is a construct (historical and cultural) determined by the discursive

practices.

Rather than representing the real qualities of a group/entity, these constructs reflect

the values/norms created by "us".

Locus of the qualities that threaten our sense of who we are, the concept of the other

plays an important role in the formation of our identity, subjectivity.

We consolidate our sense of self by distinguishing ourselves from those who are

different. Groups, nations, gender and race, too. The relationship is complex,

contradictory.

Freud says that our mind has a part (unconscious) that can't be known/controlled. This

is the other of consciousness and rationality every self is already inhabited by the



other. Boundaries of coherent selfhood are called into question. Destabilizing moments

are felt to provoke the feelings of the uncanny. Lacan: the self is the other.

The opposition is hot neutral, but hierarchical. The self is the positive term, the other is

the negative reflection it helps to consolidate the superior identity of "us", in-group.



Justification to material practices (colonization, etc.) but also to their naturalization,

power.

SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)

In general: Romeo and Juliet.

Before 1600: comedies, history plays and

 great tragedies romance plays.

Between 1601-1611: and



THE TEMPEST (1611)

It is like Shakespeare’s swan song: it is the last play that he wrote alone.

It was published posthumously (after his death) in the First Folio collection in 1623

among the “comedies”.

It respects the Aristotelian unities.

Plot

It begins with the shipwreck scene: on the ship there were the king of Naples, Alonso,

that is returning to Italy from Tunis, his brother Sebastian, his son Ferdinand, the Duke

of Milan Antonio, that is Prospero’s brother, and the Milanese courtier Gonzalo.

Hostility between brothers is an important theme.

The tempest is provoked by Prospero, he is a magician and he wants revenge against

Antonio, because he was the Duke of Milano but his brother usurped his dukedom in

Milan.

Prospero and his daughter, Miranda, watch the shipwreck from an island, in the

Mediterranean, inhabited by spirits. Then there is a flashback, the story within the

story: Prospero explains that 12 years earlier they were sent from his brother Antonio

on this island, after that he usurped his power.

Prospero became the ruler of the island after the African witch Sycorax. There, he

liberated Ariel, the spirit of the air, from a tree trunk (in which Sycorax put him) and

enslaved Caliban, the former ruler of the island and the son of the witch Sycorax.

Prospero uses his magic to take revenge, he casts the ship’s passengers up on the

island. He is now planning his “harmless” revenge with Ariel.

Prospero manipulates things, people and situations: he is like a dramatist (as

Shakespeare).

Miranda and Ferdinand will fall in love but at the beginning Prospero ignites their love.

Plotting is an important theme:

Under the spell of Prospero and Ariel, plotting of Antonio and Sebastian against

 Alonso, so that Sebastian can be king (again, fratricide).

Plotting of Trinculo, a court jester, and Stephano, a butler, with Caliban against

 Prospero, they want to kill him.

Both plots are stopped by Prospero and Ariel.

At the end, there is a final general reconciliation: forgiveness by Prospero of his

conspirators, Miranda and Ferdinand are now betrothed, Prospero regained his

dukedom, final return to Italy except for Ariel and Caliban.

Betrayal and usurpation of power

 Plotting

 Attempted murders to take revenge

 Final celebration of life and renewal through repentance and forgiveness

 Love theme

 Wonder, enchantment, supernatural, magic

 Hybrid genre



Main themes

ART – METATHEATRE

summa

The Tempest is the of Shakespeare’s theatre, there are a lot of intertextual

Prospero Hamlet

references. It is a play about art, theatre. For example, as because

Miranda Ferdinand Romeo Juliet.

the fiction is used to “stage” revenge, or and as and

Prospero is like a dramatist, because he manipulates characters on the stage with his

magic.

The island is a metaphor of the stage, the characters are like actors.

dramatis persona

Prospero is the (the artistic double) of Shakespeare, exercising his

“magic art” for the last time to stage a revenge play, the conjurer of ‘dreams’, the

illusionist finally admitting that it was all an illusion.

FACT FICTION

The stage holds the mirror to reality.

When Prospero and Miranda left Milan there had been a real tempest, and on the

island Prospero stages with his magic a tempest against Antonio, Alonso and the crew,

to provoke the shipwreck.

In reality, there had been Antonio’s plotting to usurp Prospero’s dukedom and on the

island there is the staged plotting, because Prospero is provoking Antonio.

The Tempest is a tragicomedy about a tragicomedy entitled “The Tempest”.

THE TEMPEST WITHIN THE TEMPEST.

Act IV, Scene I

Very well known monologue, spoken by Prospero. He speakes about life, death, and

what is truly real. There is emphasis on Prospero’s preparation for his confrontation

with Caliban and his emotions about Ferdinand’s engagement with Miranda.

He talks about the temporary nature of life, saying that it is inconsistent, like the

illusion that he created on the island, like dreams. He ends the masque that he

created against Miranda and Ferdinand, telling them that it is over, as life itself will be

over one day. Even our lives are destined to end.

“great globe”

Everything within the will disappear, referring to both the theatre and

the Earth. “rounded with a sleep”

Our lives are because they begin and they end with darkness,

we only exist for a brief time, in the light of the stage.

Act V, Scene I

Alone on the stage, Prospero invokes the spirits that aided him on the island,

describing the accomplishments that he reached with his magic and saying that after

performing this last act he will give his magic, his powers, breaking his stuff and

drowning his book of magic, of knowledge.

He decides to give up his magic, like Shakespeare eventually giving up with his life of

dramatist.

Epilogue

From the magic island to Milan – From magic London to Stratford

It is spoken Prospero, he directly talks to the audience, breaking distance between him

and the audience.

He declares that he is going to overthrow all his personal charms as a magician. He

says that it is true that he got back his dukedom, that he has forgiven his conspirators

and that he is going to discard forever his art of magic by which he cast a spell on

others. Now, he asks to be liberated, he asks for complete liberty to leave the stage.

He knows that people like him for his magic, but he asks to be liberated because he

wants to go back to normality (as Shakespeare, the tired artist that wants to