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Shakespeare and Skepticism. Stanley Cavell’s Interpretation of Skepticism in Othello

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Filipczuk M.

Zagadnienia Rodzajów Literackich

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2018

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vol. 61

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issue 1(125)

25-36

EN

In the present article I attempt to provide an account of the skeptic-narcissist paradox, which Stanley Cavell finds in Shakespeare’s Othello. On one hand, Othello is a “perfect soul”, on the other, he is condemned to the existence of the Other (Desdemona), in whose gaze the skeptic-narcissist could recognize himself. In this paradoxical sense — from Othello’s own perspective — Desdemona threatens his narcissistic integrity, being to him so essential. This is exactly what is involved in the self-contradictory logic of Othello’s skeptical attitude, resulting in consequence in the final tragedy.

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Niepokój Sartre’a, trwoga Abrahama, pies Dostojewskiego. Od tragizmu wyboru do egzystencjalnej hermeneutyki oraz powieściowej „mądrości niepewności”

88%

Piotr Jakubowski P.

Załącznik Kulturoznawczy

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2014

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issue 1

369-395

EN

The main aim of this article is to discuss some common and tragic human fate, that is making the decisions in state of incertitude (of our real motiva- tions as well as of further consequences of our choices), and especially natu- ral human’s reactions to them, that is searching the hints how to proceed (in- side us, from authority, from ‘the signs of the world’). The examples taken to analyse are: Biblical story of Abraham (Do I really hear the voice of God telling me to kill my son?), philosophical story of Sartre’s disciple (Should I join to the resistance or stay with my sick mother?), and literary story of Dostoyevsky, taken from J.M. Coetzee’s novel Master of Petersburg (How to refine the voice of revelation from the hum of world?). Philosophical con- siderations are connected with narrative analysis in order to not only describe human condition of incertitude but also observe how the medium of literature deals with it.

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Szekspir a sceptycyzm. Otello w interpretacji Stanleya Cavella

75%

Filipczuk M.

IDEA. Studia nad strukturą i rozwojem pojęć filozoficznych

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2017

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vol. 29/1

EN

According to Stanley Cavell, in Shakespeare’s Othello Desdemona plays a similar role to that of God in Descartes famous skeptical thought experiment. For Descartes, God is a guarantee of the existence of the external world including the body of thinking subject himself. The subject looks for a reference point in the world but does not find it, only God can be such a point of reference. Othello is similarly separated from the source of his own existence. His ideal imagination of himself is founded in something external to himself: in the idealized picture of Othello, whose only source is Desdemona. For Othello she (or rather her love) is an equivalent of the Cartesian God. If not for God and his real existence, the skeptic would remain trapped in the sphere of his own conceptual constructs, in the sphere of ideas. Even his own body, as an element of the external world, would be inaccessible to him. Therefore proving the real existence of God is necessary for the skeptic in order to prove his own real existence. The real existence of Desdemona, the reality of her love has a similarly fundamental meaning for Othello. Desdemona’s alleged betrayal, or perhaps even the possibility of this betrayal, is like a foundation of Othello’s being sliding out from beneath his feet. After entering onto the path of doubt Othello gradually slides into the abyss. This process does not have a logical end, thus the disproportionality of the despair, the radicalism that is shocking to the reader. Othello’s despair is driven by the power of its own dynamic, resembling the mechanism of the deepening psychosis. At this stage the mere facts of the external words has only secondary meaning for the internal decay of the mind, resembling the chain reaction. It can only by stopped by a feeling of certainty. However, since Othello cannot be certain as to the faithfulness of his wife, his uncertainty soon develops into an irrational conviction of Desdemona’s adultery. This Othello’s conviction leads protagonists of the drama to the final tragedy.

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The Rules of How Reality Works Through the Prism of Post-Postmodern Prose

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Zymomria M.

Czytanie Literatury. Łódzkie Studia Literaturoznawcze

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2020

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issue 9

347-354

EN

The reviewer analyses the monograph Problematic-Thematic Units and Philosophical-Esthetical Parameters of the British Post-Postmodern Novel (Kyiv, 2020) written by Dmytro Drozdovskyi, a Ukrainian scholar from Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, member of The European Society for the Study of English (Bulgarian branch). In the monograph, the author has outlined the theory of the post-postmodern novel based on the analysis of the key novels of contemporary British fiction (David Mitchell, Ian McEwan, Sarah waters, Mark Haddon, etc.). The review states that the Ukrainian scholar has developed the theory proposed by Fredric Jameson regarding the post-postmodern features of Cloud Atlas and also discusses the concept of meta-modernity as one of the sections in the post-postmodern literary paradigm in the UK. Drozdovskyi argues that meta-modernism cannot be the only term that explains all the peculiarities of contemporary British fiction, which also cannot be outlined as meta-modern but as post-postmodern. The scholar provides a new theory of the novel based on the exploitation of real and unreal historical facts and imagined alternative histories and multifaceted realities. Furthermore, the reviewer pays attention to the contribution this monograph has for world literary studies spotlighting the theory of literary meta-genre patterns, as Drozdovskyi provides a theory according to which literary periods can be divided into those in which the carnival is the dominant meta-genre pattern (like postmodernism) and those that exploit the mystery as the meta-genre pattern (post-postmodernism). The reviewer analyses the key thematic units explained by Drozdovskyi as the key ones that determine the semiosphere of the contemporary British novel (post-metaphysical and post-positivist thinking of the characters, medicalisation of the humanitarian discourse, and the representation of the temporal unity of different realities). The scholar also states that the post-postmodern British novel exploits the findings of German Romanticism and Kant’s philosophy.

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Michel Houellebecq — ostatni egzystencjalista

63%

Jarocki J.

Roczniki Filozoficzne

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2017

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vol. 65

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issue 4

201-224

PL

Michel Houellebecq to pisarz francuski, autor sześciu powieści, a także poeta, reżyser oraz muzyk. Jego literaturę najczęściej traktuje się jako bezkompromisową krytykę współczesnego społeczeństwa, zwłaszcza takich zjawisk, jak konsumpcjonizm czy seksualizacja kultury. W niniejszym artykule zamierzam wykazać, że powieści Houellebecqa współdzielą myśl, która jest charakterystyczna dla filozofii egzystencjalnej. Opierając się nie tylko na epice, ale również na poezji, esejach i wywiadach Houellebecqa, staram się dowieść, że rozważany przezeń problem — tzw. problem egzystencji — dotyczy relacji między subiektywną jednostką a obiektywną, rozumianą w kategoriach naukowych rzeczywistością, bohaterowie jego powieści natomiast to przedstawiciele możliwych odpowiedzi na pojawiające się tu napięcie. Jeżeli uznać, że ów problem stanowi kluczową cechę egzystencjalizmu, a — jak staram się wykazać — tak właśnie jest, to zasadne staje się nazwanie Houellebecqa prawdopodobnie ostatnim wpływowym przedstawicielem tego nurtu.

EN

The French writer Michel Houellebecq is the author of six novels, and is also a poet, a director, and a musician. His literature is usually thought to be a fierce critique of contemporary society, especially of phenomena like consumerism and the sexualization of culture. In this article, I shall argue that Houellebecq’s novels share a thought that is also the basic idea of existentialism. Quoting not only Houellebecq’s novels, but also poems, essays and interviews, I will try to show that the problem he considers—which I call “the existence problem”—concerns the relation between a subjective individual and objective reality, described in terms of the natural sciences. By contrast, the main characters of his novels are representatives of different answers to that problem. If the problem does play a crucial role in existentialism—and, as I argue, this is the case—then it is legitimate to call Houellebecq probably the last of the influential existentialists.

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1 Czytanie Literatury. Łódzkie Studia Literaturoznawcze

1 IDEA. Studia nad strukturą i rozwojem pojęć filozoficznych

1 Roczniki Filozoficzne

1 Zagadnienia Rodzajów Literackich

1 Załącznik Kulturoznawczy

2 Filipczuk M.

1 Jarocki J.

1 Piotr Jakubowski P.

1 Zymomria M.

1 2020

1 2018

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1 2014

Shakespeare and Skepticism. Stanley Cavell’s Interpretation of Skepticism in Othello

Niepokój Sartre’a, trwoga Abrahama, pies Dostojewskiego. Od tragizmu wyboru do egzystencjalnej hermeneutyki oraz powieściowej „mądrości niepewności”

Szekspir a sceptycyzm. Otello w interpretacji Stanleya Cavella

The Rules of How Reality Works Through the Prism of Post-Postmodern Prose

Michel Houellebecq — ostatni egzystencjalista