Messiahs and Machiavellians

Paul Corey

Description

Messiahs and Machiavellians is an innovative exploration of "modern evil"in works of early- and late-modern theatre, raising issues about ethics, politics, religion, and aesthetics that speak to our present condition.

Paul Corey examines how theatre—which expressed a key political dynamic both in the Renaissance and the twentieth century—lays open the impulses that instigated modernity and, ultimately, unparalleled levels of violence and destruction. Starting with Albert Camus' Caligula and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, then turning to Machiavelli's Mandragola and Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Corey traces the emergence of two dominant, intertwining features of modern evil: an unrestrained pursuit of power and the utopian desire for perfection.

Corey's imaginative and convincing readings of these plays, based on detailed textual analysis, move beyond the accounts usually offered by literary critics. Drawing on political, theological, and philosophical sources—a combination as fertile as it is unusual—Corey's methodology allows him to make keen and subtle arguments about the eschatological nature of modern politics.

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie politique
• Éthique et morale
• Literary Criticism
• Political
• PHILOSOPHY
• Politics
• Drama

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 27 mai 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268076818
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

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Messiahs
and
MachiavelliansCorey 000.FM 4/4/08 3:14 PM Page iiCorey 000.FM 4/4/08 3:14 PM Page iii
Messiahs
and
achiavellians
DEPICTING EVIL IN THE MODERN THEATRE
PAUL COREY
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, IndianaCorey 000.FM 4/4/08 3:14 PM Page iv
Copyright © 2008 by University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
www.undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Designed by Wendy McMillen
Set in 10.3/13.6 Visage Book by Four Star Books
Printed on 55# Nature’s Recycle by Versa Press
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Corey, Paul, 1968–
Messiahs and machiavellians : depicting evil in the modern theatre / Paul Corey.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-268-02295-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-268-02295-X (er)
1. European drama—History and criticism. 2. Evil in literature. I. Title.
PN1650.E95C67 2008
809.2'9353—dc22
2008010455
This book is printed on recycled paper.Corey 000.FM 4/4/08 3:14 PM Page v
FOR AVA COREY AND ELIAS COREYCorey 000.FM 4/4/08 3:14 PM Page viCorey 000.FM 4/4/08 3:14 PM Page vii
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Key to Abbreviations and Textual Notes xi
PREFACE
Revaluating Modernity: September 11, the “Death Event,”
and the Word Evil xiii
INTRODUCTION
Theatre and Evil in the Shadow of the “Death Event” 1
PART ONE
Evil in Twentieth-Century Theatre
CHAPTER ONE
Eschatology and the Absurd 31
CHAPTER TWO
The Gnostic Caesar: Radical Eschatology in
Albert Camus’s Caligula 49
CHAPTER THREE
Messianism and the Age of Senility: Perpetual Expectation in
Beckett’s Waiting for Godot 88
EPILOGUE
The Two “Nothings” of Caligula and Waiting for Godot 133Corey 000.FM 4/4/08 3:14 PM Page viii
viii Contents|
PART TWO
Evil in Renaissance Theatre
CHAPTER FOUR
Expediency and the Machiavel 143
CHAPTER FIVE
Evil and Virtue in Mandragola 160
CHAPTER SIX
The “Fantastical Duke of Dark Corners”:
Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure 203
EPILOGUE
Machiavellianism and Providence 251
CONCLUSION
Modern Theatre and the Tragic Vision 259
Notes 277
Bibliography 327
Index 339Corey 000.FM 4/4/08 3:14 PM Page ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The majority of this text was completed during my time in the
Department of Religious Studies at McMaster University. The department
provided a stimulating environment for intellectual inquiry. At McMaster,
I had the good fortune to meet Zdravko Planinc, who originally suggested
I examine the history of theatre as a response to evil and then
supervised my dissertation. Over the years, he not only showed me how to be
a scholar but also taught me what it means to live a philosophic life. This
book would not have been written without his teaching. In particular, I
must acknowledge his influence on my reading of Shakespeare. In a series
of lectures at McMaster, he revealed to me the central problems of
Measure for Measure. My chapter on this play is certainly the result of his
influence. Any errors of interpretation are, of course, my own.
Edward Andrew of the University of Toronto read my dissertation
and provided helpful criticisms. I thank him for reading my work with
such care. Samuel Ajzenstat, Graeme MacQueen, Louis Greenspan, and
Lee Brooks also read drafts, and their criticisms helped improve the text.
I am also grateful to the two anonymous referees who reviewed my
manuscript for the University of Notre Dame Press. Their reviews proved
tremendously insightful and contributed to a more polished text.
There are a number of people at the University of Notre Dame Press
who I want to thank: Lowell Francis, my acquisitions editor, for expressing
interest in my work and moving the entire project to fruition; Rebecca
DeBoer, for overseeing the entire editing process and keeping things on a
tight schedule; Susan Roberts, for her work in marketing and promotions;
Margaret Gloster, for her work designing the book cover; and Sheila Berg,
for her exceptional copyediting of the manuscript.
Preliminary drafts of my research on Machiavelli’s Mandragola and
Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure were presented at the Canadian
ixCorey 000.FM 4/4/08 3:14 PM Page x
x Acknowledgments|
Political Science Association meetings in Ottawa, 1998, and Sherbrooke,
1999. I presented an early version of my chapter on Camus’s Caligula for
the Religion, Holocaust and Genocide Group at the annual meeting of
the American Academy of Religion in Boston, 1999. I also presented an
edited version of my chapter on Beckett’s Waiting for Godot to the Eric
Voegelin Society at the American Political Science Association’s annual
meeting in Philadelphia, 2003. I especially thank Ellis Sandoz and the
Voegelin Society for being receptive to my work over the years and
providing a forum for discussing the highest matters. Finally, sections of the
main introduction and conclusion appeared in altered form in my article
“Canadian Theatre and the Tragic Experience of Evil” in the journal
Theatre Research in Canada 27, no. 2 (2006): 282–305.
A number of people contributed indirectly to this project through
lectures, academic papers, or informal discussions that influenced my
thinking on certain key issues. I thank Jerry Day, Oona Eisenstat, Travis
Kroeker, Craig Perfect, Ron Srigley, Susan Srigley, Jeff Tessier, and
Stephen Westerholm. Thanks to Rob Virdis for indexing. I also express my
appreciation to Elizabeth Daignault, who, more than anyone, experienced
the daily challenges of the creative process. My thanks to Liz, for being
a midwife for this writing; I know it was a complicated delivery.
There are other people who have supported me in other ways and
without whose encouragement this project would not have been
completed. I thank Kent Emerson for his love and no-nonsense advice; David
Hunt and Fiona Burke, who proved that you do indeed find out who your
true friends are when times get tough; the extended Corey family,
especially Rachel and Frank Hruska, who were there for me when I needed
them most; and Kate Henry, whose counsel has provided both comfort
and insight and who has helped me live in accord with the Delphic
injunction: “Know Yourself.”
I thank Andrea Buchholz, who became my partner during the
publishing phase of this project. As always, she arrived right on time. Her
intelligence, humor, and encouragement have meant everything to me.
Somehow she has managed the difficult task of combining towering
ambition with genuine hospitality. Rock ’n’ Roll Cleveland!
Finally, and most important, I want to thank my parents, Gerard and
Nola Corey. Their unconditional love has been the foundation of my life,
and I cannot repay the debt. This book is the fruit of their labors as well. Corey 000.FM 4/4/08 3:14 PM Page xi
KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS AND TEXTUAL NOTES
CG Augustine, City of God. Trans. Henry Bettenson. London: Penguin
Books, 1972.
D Machiavelli, Niccolò. Discourses on Livy. Trans. Harvey C. Mansfield
Jr. and Nathan Tarcov. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
MS Camus, Albert. Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays. Trans. Justin
O’ Brien. New York: Vintage Books, 1955.
NE Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. Martin Ostwald. New York:
Macmillan, 1962.
P Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. Trans. Harvey C. Mansfield Jr.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
R Camus, Albert. The Rebel. Trans. Anthony Bower. New York:
Vintage International, 1956.
ST Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica. Trans. Fathers of the English
Dominican Province. 3 vols. New York: Benzinger Bros., 1948.
Any alterations to these translations are indicated in the notes.
I have used the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press) for Greek and Latin texts, unless otherwise indicated. All
biblical quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version. All
references to Shakespeare are from The Complete Works of Shakespeare,
ed. David Bevington, rev. 4th ed. (New York: Longman, 1997).
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PREFACE
Revaluating Modernity
September 11, the “Death Event,” and the Word Evil
Evil is a dirty word in most Western liberal democracies. To brand
someone, something, or some event as “evil” suggests that you are speaking
of an absolute struggle between the forces of good (us) and the forces of
evil (them) in which there can be no compromise. To speak seriously of
evil might signify to others that you are a religious or ideological
extremist, that you lack a critical intellect, and that you have not considered the
various economic, social, historical, and political factors motivating the
people and events so designated. Reality is complicated, some will say,
and it is crude to divide it into the black-and-white categories “evil” and
“good.” The best approach is not to speak of evil at all.
In recent years, however, the word has become part of our popular
vocabulary once again—at least to some extent. More than anything else,
the terrorist attacks by Al-Qaeda against the United States on
September 11, 2001, gave evil a newfound currency. As we experienced the
immediate trauma of hijacked planes crashing into the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon and killing nearly three thousand people, the word evil
seemed suitable. A deluge of articles and new publications appeared
dealing with the subject of evil. But as politicians started using the word
with greater frequency, most notably U.S. President George W. Bush, the
revival of the concept was met by voices of dissent. President Bush was
imprecisely, yet pointedly, accused of Manichaeism—of espousing a
re1ligious dualism that divides the world into good and evil. Some critics
argued that the president’s worldview, deeply influenced by evangelical
xiiiCorey 000.FM 4/4/08 3:14 PM Page xiv
xiv Preface: Revaluating Modernity|
Christianity, is analogous to that of Al-Qaeda: just as the terrorists brand
the secular West as “Satanic” and seek to destroy us, so the Bush
administration brands terrorists and anyone associated wi