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Actorship, parrhesia, and Representation: Remarks on Theatricality and Politics in Hobbes, Rousseau, and Diderot

  • Dieter Thomä EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 10. März 2018
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Aus der Zeitschrift Anglia Band 136 Heft 1

Abstract

This paper addresses the strained relationship between parrhesia and actorship and analyzes its political implications. These two terms seem to be antipodes: parrhesia emphasizes the presence of a speaker or author whereas actorship deploys representation. As their relation can be explained by means of the concept of representation it is worthwhile considering the two settings in which representation matters: theater and politics. These settings will be explored in case studies on Hobbes’s, Rousseau’s, and Diderot’s accounts of parrhesia and actorship. Hobbes dismisses parrhesiastic freedom, minimalizes political authorship and favors a model of representation featuring a peculiar, powerful actor: the State. Rousseau criticizes actorship and representation, and seeks to re-install the people as sovereign author. This author is equipped with a strangely distorted form of parrhesia. Diderot takes neither Hobbes’s nor Rousseau’s side. He hints at the political potential of the author-actor relationship and paves the way to a revised notion of parrhesia.

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Published Online: 2018-03-10
Published in Print: 2018-03-08

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Articles
  3. Drama, Theatre, and Philosophy: An Introduction
  4. Notes toward The Philosophy of Theatre
  5. Philosophical Theatre: Some Reflections on the Concept
  6. Thinking/Tragedy/Thinking Tragedy: Remarks on the Fate of Theory on Stage
  7. Dramatic Measures: Comedy as Philosophical Paradigm
  8. Is the Theatre a Zombie? On the Successful Failures of Émile Zola
  9. Illusions at the Theatre
  10. Thinking Theatres beyond Sight: From Reflection to Resonance
  11. Performing Democracy
  12. Actorship, parrhesia, and Representation: Remarks on Theatricality and Politics in Hobbes, Rousseau, and Diderot
  13. Reviews
  14. Keith Brown and Jim Miller. A Critical Account of English Syntax: Grammar, Meaning, Text. Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language ‒ Advanced. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016, 296 pp., £ 80.00 (hb)/£ 24.99 (pb).
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  16. Kari Anne Rand.The Index of Middle English Prose: Index to Volumes I–XX. Cambridge: Brewer, 2014, ix + 603 pp., £ 95.00. Patrick J. Horner.The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist XXI: Manuscripts in the Hatton and e Musaeo Collections, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Cambridge: Brewer, 2014, xx + 112 pp., £ 60.00. Angela M. Lucas. The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist XXII: Manuscripts in Christ’s, Emmanuel, Jesus, Selwyn and Sidney Sussex Colleges, Peterhouse and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Cambridge: Brewer, 2016, xxiv + 173 pp., £ 60.00. S. J. Ogilvie-Thomson. The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist XXIII: The Rawlinson Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Cambridge: Brewer, 2017, xl + 367 pp., £ 75.00.
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  23. Books Received
Heruntergeladen am 12.1.2026 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/ang-2018-0015/pdf?lang=de
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