Spectacle and space: epistemological anxiety (ethics) in Jose Rivera's Marisol

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Title:	Spectacle and space: epistemological anxiety (ethics) in Jose Rivera's Marisol
Authors:	Huang, Shih-yi;黃仕宜
Contributors:	淡江大學英文學系
Keywords:	Spectacle;space;epistemology;Jose Rivera;Marisol;Emmanuel Levinas;Henri Lefebvre;Michel de Certeau;Guy Debord
Date:	2012-11
Issue Date:	2013-03-08 13:23:10 (UTC+8)
Abstract:	This paper examines the epistemological anxiety evident in social spaces presented in Jose Rivera's play Marisol. Using magic realism, Rivera twists the metropolitan space to demonstrate spatial arrangements that marks a break of ethics, hence a break of humanity in Levinasian (Emmanuel Levinas) terms. By altering the space, Rivera reverses the self-other relationship reflecting what Emmanuel Levinas calls "substitution" and "proximity of the one for the other" (peace). Awarded the aBlE award in 1993, Marisol is a statement on New York mayor Ed Koch's "anti-loitering" policy, under which the homeless, not fitting into Koch's image of a progressive metropolis, were criminalized as urban misfits. Merely trying to survive, the homeless were in no position to form a social resistance movement themselves. The strategy of magic realism realizes many spatial theories on spatial discord, including Henri Lefebvre's socially produced spaces, Michel de Certeau's voyeur perception from world trade centre, and Guy Debord's criticism of capitalist society's domination by image and spectacle, to name just a few. This paper argues that these discourses which reify "theoretical space" reflect epistemological anxieties, where the dislocation of the self's relationship with its SOcial/natural/supernatural others is inscribed in space. This paper analyzes the political purpose of Revera's strategy of magic realism - several spatial and ethical distortions which Revera adopts to create a topsy-turvy world - so as to pose questions concerning its epistemological (as well as ideological) status and functions. While distinctions such as urban/suburban, homeowner/renter/homeless, order/chaos in Marisol present contested spaces, intimating a critique of the established socio-political hierarchy, Revera also suggests the anticipation of revolution, a possible reconciliation. What epistemological model adequately situates these extreme oppositional tensions reflected in these distinctions? This paper demonstrates how opposition entails spatial separation - as in both Debord's notions of image-mediated spectacle and De Certeau's abstraction of poverty - that breaks the Levinasian ethical relation, whereby the other's proximity and distance must be strongly felt to ensure the recognition of the demands of the Other's face and alterity.
Relation:	第二十屆英美文學學會國際學術研討會
Appears in Collections:	[Graduate Institute & Department of English] Proceeding

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