Course Name: Performing Recognition: Anagnorisis and Action
Instructor:
SLN: 14696
Meeting Time: Th, 1:30-4:20pm
Term: Winter 2014
It is surprising for modern readers of Aristotle’s Poetics to realize that recognition (anagnorisis: one of the three constitutive parts of the dramatic plot) has to be conceived of as an action in the world rather than an internal operation of the mind. How can recognition consist in performance rather than cognition? In this course we will investigate texts and plays to explore this fundamental concept of theatrical practice and theory. Our syllabus looks into three different scenes of recognition: Homecoming; Epistemology; and the Mirror. Together, these three scenes comprise the knowledge of self, other, and the relation between the two. We will begin our journey where Odysseus finished his: with his arrival on Ithaca. After examining the performance of Homer’s epic, we’ll turn to several stage versions of the Odyssey from Calderon to Botho Strauss. Next, the performative production of knowledge will provide a stage to investigate the difference between comic and tragic recognition (Shakespeare, Goethe). Finally, we’ll turn to self recognition by reflecting on the trope of the mirror in Plato, Shakespeare, and Büchner. As Aristotle’s concepts of anagnorisis and praxis provide a theoretical impetus from the beginning of our investigation, Hannah Arendt’s inflection of action will give us an opportunity in the final sessions to consider recognition again in its performative, ethical, and political dimensions. Readings in English and German; discussions in English.
Weekly Readings:
Aristotle, The Poetics; The Physics (sel.)
Scenes of Homecoming: Leaving and Returning
Homer, The Odyssey, xii-xxiv (Auerbach, “Odysseus’ Scar”)
Shakespeare, Pericles; Calderon, El mayor encanto, amor
Monteverdi, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria; Botho Strauss, Ithaka
Scenes of Knowledge: Comic or Tragic Recognition?
Shakespeare, King Lear, As You Like It (Cavell, “Avoidance of Love”)
Goethe, Faust I; scientific and autobiographical writings (sel.)
Mirror Scenes: The Politics of Recognition
Plato, Alcibiades I; Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida
Büchner, Dantons Tod; Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
Arendt, The Human Condition; Hegel, Phänomenologie des Geistes (sel.)
Conference Panels