Sappho 16 begins with one of the most famous priamels in Greek literature (16.1-4): Ο]ἰ μὲν ἰππήων στρότον, οἰ δὲ πέσδων, οἰ δὲ νάων φαῖσʼ ἐπ[ὶ] γᾶν μέλαι[ν]αν ἔ]μμεναι κάλλιστον, ἔγω δὲ κῆν' ὄτ-τω τις ἔραταιSome say a host of cavalry, others of infantry, and others of ships, is the most beautiful thing on the black earth, but I say it is whatsoever a person loves. 1
This article explores ways in which Kurosawa's Ran, an adaptation of King Lear which premiered in 1985, evokes Western and Japanese traditions to confront Japan's wartime history and the post-war dangers of mutually assured destruction. In focusing on the depiction of Hidetora (the film's Lear-figure) as one who both commits and suffers atrocity, the article traces parallels with the condition of post-war Japan, which, at the time of the film's premiere, was still coming to terms with the violence it had inflicted and suffered during the mid-twentieth century. In doing so, it illuminates the film's transformative reception of the dramatic traditions and historical narratives of Japan and the 'West' (especially Shakespeare's tragedies; the Noh plays Yoroboshi and Sesshoseki; Norton and Sackville's Gorboduc; and Senecan drama). Kurosawa's adaptation of Lear structures new, emotionally powerful events that are as politically charged as they are aesthetic and affective. Ultimately, the article argues that Ran's simultaneous evocations of both Japanese and Western traditions (the ostensible foregrounding of Shakespearean aspects of the film, such as the division of the kingdom, re-appropriated through Japanese setting, costumes, language, and conventions), and specifically the ways that the film's depictions of violence, revenge, and karmic retribution implicate both traditions concurrently, make a powerful statement about the construction and shattering of national identity and the logic of mutually assured destruction.
External agents play a substantial role in the construction of the self in Seneca’s Thyestes . The intersubjective quality of self-formation for which I argue challenges psychoanalytic interpretations that read Senecan drama in terms of self-constructed identity and internal conflict (Shelton 1977; Segal 1986: 10–17, 34, 223–225; Fitch and McElduff 2002; Schiesaro 2003). References to Stoic materialism and Lacanian theory provide both ancient and modern frameworks for reading the inter-subjective logic of the play. The Fury and the ghost of Tantalus invade and overwhelm Atreus’ ethical agency with the furor that impels his crimes: they initiate the impressions, or pre-emotions, that lead to furor and violence. Atreus’ scelus in turn constitutes his identity. From a Lacanian perspective, the paternal metaphor in the tragedy collapses around Tantalus, who represents a failed figure of the law. When Atreus confronts Thyestes, his uncanny double, in a struggle that calls into question his sexual identity and the paternity of his sons, it precipitates a breakdown between the self and outer world. The contagio of one subject’s agency with the agency of an “other” ironizes autarchic self-construction and dramatizes that what is at stake in acceding to the impetus of another’s emotions is one’s very self. Les agents extérieurs jouent un rôle substantiel pour la construction du soi dans le Thyeste de Sénèque. La qualité intersubjective de l’autoformation, que je défends, défie les interprétations psychanalytiques, qui lisent le théâtre sénéquien en termes d’identité auto-construite et de conflits internes (Shelton 1977; Segal 1986: 10–17, 34, 223–225; Fitch et McElduff 2002; Schiesaro 2003). Les références au matérialisme stoïcien et à la théorie lacanienne fournissent des modèles à la fois anciens et modernes pour lire la logique intersubjective de la pièce. La Furie et le fantôme de Tantale envahissent et submergent l’instance éthique d’Atrée avec la furor qui le pousse à ses crimes : ils initient les impressions, ou pré-émotions, qui mènent à la furor et à la violence. Quant au scelus d’Atrée, il constitue son identité. D’une perspective lacanienne, la métaphore paternelle dans la tragédie connaît un échec avec Tantale, lequel représente une figure manquée de la loi. Quand Atrée confronte Thyeste, son double inquiétant, dans un combat qui remet en question son identité sexuelle et la paternité de ses fils, cela précipite une rupture entre le soi et le monde extérieur. La contagio de l’instance d’un sujet avec l’instance d’un « autre » tourne en dérision l’auto-construction autarcique et met en lumière que le risque en accédant à l’impulsion émotionnelle d’un autre, c’est de compromettre la sienne propre.
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