Deconstruction and the Concept of Art in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound

سال انتشار: 1392
نوع سند: مقاله کنفرانسی
زبان: انگلیسی
مشاهده: 1,412

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تاریخ نمایه سازی: 28 آذر 1392

چکیده مقاله:

Ever since Plato argued over the idea of Mimesis, art as representation became secondary to life as reality. Plato and his followers upheld the idea that art imitates life, therefore, representation cannot precede reality, because reality is always present, and representation steps in when there is absence of reality. For centuries, this idea brought reality at the center of attention. However, the postmodern era with all its discrepancies arrived and opened up new perspectives to reality. By introducing deconstruction, the postmodern philosopher, Jacque Derrida, began to question the regular system of philosophy proposed by the Western civilization in the sense of reversing the standard criteria for achieving reality. This reversal is epitomized in finding the similarities and oddities in binary oppositions and changing the arbitrary superiority in favor of the inferior; that consequently leads to privileging representation over reality. Derrida believes that representation denies that anything is immediately present, (independent of sign); therefore, privileging writing over speech, he asserts that There is nothing outside the text and text, representation, or art become superior to life. By deconstructing the idea of Mimesis, and inclining towards anti-mimesis, the definition of art drastically changes and the principle of life for art’s sake prevails. Tom Stoppard’s plays are exemplars of the superiority of art and its effects over life; where life is faced by the effectiveness of art, and the classical aesthetics is totally overturned. This article attempts to analyze the way deconstruction revolutionizes the concept of art in Stoppard’s brilliant play The Real Inspector Hound (1968). The play is about two different worlds which have been juxtaposed by Stoppard to indicate the vulnerability of the boundary between reality and representation. Two theater critics sitting and watching a play going on the stage, seem to be totally detached from the fictive world of representations on the stage. During Stoppard’s play we come to realize that the sequence of events lead to the play on the stage taking the upper hand and becoming more important than reality. The two critics get involved in actions they were supposed to merely watch and comment on; consequently, the line between reality and fiction blurs, and the binary opposition of reality and representation reverses. This article attempts to apply a deconstructive reading of The Real Inspector Hound, in order to reach to the conclusion that art (representation) can be more original than life itself, not secondary and mimetic toward it

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نویسندگان

Basheer Sadeghi

M. A Student in English Literature, English Department, Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan

Saghar Safaeyan

M. A Student in English Literature, English Department, Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan

Sohila Faghfori

Assistant Professor in English Literature, English Department, Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan