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The Political Theory of the New Deal

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The Political Theory of the New Deal © 2010 Margot Bonel Morgan All Rights Reserved THE DECLINE OF POLITICAL THEATRE IN 20TH CENTURY EUROPE: SHAW, BRECHT, SARTRE, AND IONESCO COMPARED by MARGOT BONEL MORGAN A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School – New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Political Science Written under the direction of Stephen Eric Bronner And approved by ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey October, 2010 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Decline of Political Theory in 20th Century Europe: Shaw, Brecht, Sartre, and Ionesco Compared by MARGOT BONEL MORGAN Dissertation Director: Stephen Eric Bronner Many political theorists, from Hannah Arendt and Theodor Adorno to Sheldon Wolin and Jurgen Habermas, have noted that the twentieth century was a time of an “eclipse of the public sphere” and a “sublimation of politics.” Partly due to the traumas of world war, totalitarianism, and genocide, and partly due to the absorptive capacities of instrumental reason and mass consumerism, mid-twentieth century Europe experienced an exhaustion of radical energy and a hollowing out of political discourse. This dissertation contributes to the narration of these developments by offering an account of the decline of political theater in twentieth century Europe. While since the ancient Greeks theater had been an important medium of political reflection and communication—and thus an important genre of political theorizing—by the middle of the 20th century theater became, especially in Western Europe and the United States, a medium of mass entertainment deprived of political aspiration and bite. This dissertation tells the story of this decline of political theater through profiles of four of the most important, brilliant, and influential playwrights of the century—George Bernard Shaw, ii Bertolt Brecht, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Eugene Ionesco. The first three playwrights sought to dramatize the challenges of their times in ways that could promote radical political change. Each, in his own way, failed in this effort. The fourth, Ionesco, also experienced the traumas of the century, but responded by developing a new, “absurdist” theater that was deeply anti-political. By profiling these important writers, and by linking them in a narrative of political theater’s decline in the 20th century, this dissertation has two primary goals: to contribute to the remembrance of a “world we have lost,” and through such remembrance to incite contemporary political theorists to revisit and rethink the political potential of the theater. iii DEDICATION For my biggest supporters: Mom, Dad, Fiona, Drake, & Tony Steve Jeffrey Lexie (And for b.b.) iv Acknowledgments First, I would like to thank all of my teachers, past, present, and future. I would like to especially thank those who supported me when I was a child and an adolescent, for it was then I most needed someone to believe in me: Mrs. Pickett, Beth Spraybery, Perry Degener, Daniel Weintraub, and Bruce Larkin. To all my Rutgers friends and foes: I love you all. You have helped to make me who I am today. A big thanks to Susan Billmaier, Eric Boehme, Helen Delfeld, Joseph Dwyer, Brian Graf, Nicole Hablenko, Dr. Mr. Aaron Keck, Kristy King, Geoff Kurtz, Amy Linch, Adam Liszkiewicz, Jay Millikan, Nichole Shippen, Meredith Staples and Kevin Worrall. Of course, my professors have my appreciation as well. I especially want to thank the people who really pushed me to finish and supported my efforts. Without their help I could not have gotten through: John Ehrenberg, Dennis Bathory, Andrew Murphy. And of course, my deepest, sincerest thanks goes to Steve Bronner. Steve: Not only have you been the most amazing mentor I could ever have hoped for, you have also proven yourself time and again to be my biggest supporter. When I doubted myself, you gave me strength. When I needed direction, you provided it. You are one of the most caring, intelligent, and wise people I have ever known or could ever hope to know. And words cannot express my gratitude for all you have done for me. So I say simply, Thank you. To my family: I did it! I love you all, and I have no idea what I would do without you. Words can’t express how much I love each one of you. We have weathered some v difficult storms, and we are all the stronger for it. And as more people are brought into our fold, the stronger we will be. Thank you, Fiona, for being a strong role-model for your little sister. Thank you, Drake, for being my confidante and supporter. Mom, thank you for your unconditional support of everything I have ever tried to do. And thank you, Dad, for giving me the late-night pep talks that keep me going. They mean more to me than you will ever know. Go, Morgans! Jeffrey, you have become one of my biggest supporters, just as I always wished you would be. Your help over the past 6 months has been vital to my success, and I will not forget it. I hope to repay the favor when you write your next book. You are lovely and amazing, and I am looking forward to our future together. I never expected that I would find a life-long best friend at graduate school. And yet, I did. Lexie, you are amazing, and I am so glad to have met you, to have had the chance to get to know you, and to be able to stay so close to you. Together, we not only got through, but we even had fun! My most treasured moments at Rutgers include you. The whole 9 years was worth it, just to have met you. And you know that’s saying something. vi Contents Abstract ii Dedication iv Acknowledgments v 1. Political Theatre as Political Theory 1 2. Bernard Shaw: The Last Great Bourgeois Playwright 28 3. Bertolt Brecht: The Theatre of Proletarian Revolution 66 4. Jean-Paul Sartre: The Theatre of Situations: Existentialism 131 and the Politics of Resistance 5. Eugène Ionesco: The Eclipse of Political Theatre 166 6. The Inversion of the Public and the Private 204 Bibliography 215 Curriculum Vitae 228 vii 1 Political Theatre as Political Theory It should be readily apparent to anyone familiar with the organized sections of the American Political Science Association that art and culture have little place in the modern conception of politics and in the discipline devoted to its study. A quick glimpse through the program of any recent APSA annual convention reveals the pervasive pre- occupation with governmental institutions and actors who seek to influence them, whether they be individuals, interest groups, or non-governmental organizations. The exceptions to this preoccupation – certain subsets of political theory focused on politics and literature, for example, and subsets of comparative politics that deal with political culture -- seem to prove the rule, as they are relatively undervalued and still pressured to conform to the methodological requirements of politics as a social science. Divisions that seek to expand the narrow working definition within which they operate, such as Politics and Literature and Film, often spend much of their energy providing justifications for their very existence as part of their constant quest for recognition and legitimacy. What is most fascinating about this is that the delimitation of the study of politics to institutions and practices of government is a strikingly recent historical development limited to specific global geographic regions (i.e. the North and/or West). Yet, there seems to be little to no acknowledgement of this fact or the implications that arise from it in the consciousness of the men and women who spend their lives professionally analyzing “politics.” Hence, when I recently explained to a political theory colleague the nature of this project – an effort to revive interest in politics and theatre, centered on the discussion of four playwrights -- I was barraged with criticism regarding its irrelevance to the discipline of political science and told point blank that, while the project might shed 2 light on theatre or dramatic literature, it had nothing to do with theorizing about politics. At the time, I fell into the trap to which many political scientists concerned with art and culture, who are more comfortable thinking of themselves as mere students of politics, succumb: I attempted to justify myself. Upon reflection, however, I realized that the more appropriate thing to do would have been to ask this colleague a simple question: “Do you realize that, up until at most 75 years ago, it would have been inconceivable to question the fundamental linkages between art and politics?” Or, more pointedly, “Do you have any idea how presentist you sound?” For millennia, the study of politics had been understood as inseparable from the study of social life as a whole. Art, religion, history, politics, morality – all of these things were understood as interconnected, as constituted by and constitutive of human interaction. To segregate the study of each from the others would have been inconceivable to the ancient Greeks, ancient Romans, medieval Christians, philosophes of the European enlightenment, Romantics, and the liberal and radical intellectuals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. An ecological conception of politics, which views politics as part of a dynamic whole that is best understood – and possibly, only understood – as a whole, is still dominant in many cultures to this day, and it lost its position of dominance in the West only when liberal capitalism became hegemonic in the 20th century. The flippant rejection of a project that combined the study of art with that of politics would likely not have been possible even 50 years ago, when the aesthetic dimensions of politics were clear even to those behavioralists who most sought to exorcize them from a proper “science” of politics.
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