Antieroi shakespeariani, criminali (e) politici. Francis Urquhart e (BBC)

Daniele Croci – Università degli Studi Di Milano – 04/12/2014 Cattivo. Cattivissimo. Cattivo?

Introduzione: Cultural Materialism

● Reazione a New Criticism – Visione universalistica/antistorica della letteratura – Valore intrinseco-stabilito ● Femminismo, strutturalismo d'impronta Marxista, teoria poststrutturalista,

● R. Williams, A. Gramsci, M.Foucault, L. Althusser (Dollimore 1994)

●

Contenuti

● Introduzione: Cultural Materialism

● House of Cards (BBC, 1990-1995) – 12 puntate – A. Davies, P. Seed e M. Vardy

● reificazione del letterario Shakespeariano

● presa di posizione sociopolitica antireazionaria – Contesto storico – Ibridazione narrative di genere

Cultural Materialism

“The delegitimaton of institutional strategies of containment that rely on Shakespeare as the keystone of an ideology according to which ‘man's nature doesn't change’” (Wayne 1987, 51) Shakespeare autore eterno verità dell’animo natura dell’uomo

(essenzialismo)

House of Cards (BBC, 1990-1995)

● A. Davies, P. Seed e M. Vardy

● M. Dobbs, chief of staff per

● Political Drama

● Ambientazione: dopo le dimissioni di M. Thatcher (1990)

● Protagonista: Francis Urquhart, chief P. Conservatore

Richard III (1592) e (1606)

● Non un adattamento

● Tre modalità di appropriazione: – Somiglianza (o citazione indiretta) di eventi o personaggi – Menzione (o riferimento) – Citazione diretta e letterale di passi dei plays.

● Monologhi e Interpellazione

Macbeth (1606)

● “Glamis, Cawdor and King Hereafter” (ep1-5:55)

● Incontro con le streghe in 1.3.46-48

● “I think that you should be Prime Minister. You are twice the man Collingridge is, or ever will be”

● Elizabeth Lady Macbeth

Richard III (1592)

● Riluttanza ad assumere la carica

● “Quite a little touch of Richard of Gloucester at Baynard's Castle” (ep3,45:40)

● “Shine out, fair sun!” (1.2.266)

Macbeth Richard III

● 'I am in blood stepped in so far” (ep.8,42:43)

● Macbeth (3.4.136- 137)

● Rimando a Richard III (4.2.64-65)

● Contiguità narrativa e tematica

Citazioni e riferimenti caratterizzazione superficiale del personaggio bramosia e ambizione

Ipostatizzazione: 1) personaggio come “rassicurante” simbolo di hubris (=alterigia, eccessivo orgoglio) 2) destoricizzazione – viziosità intrinseca

House of Cards – M. Thatcher (tre mandati, 1979-1990)

● Sovrano e sanità dello stato

● A new Elizabethan age - the splendour here, the squalor there” (9.17:02)

● Disuguaglianze, povertà, tensioni sociali. Guerra

● Ripetizione mimetica – ideale continuazione del decennio Thatcher

● Politica economica FU: “Enterprise culture. Grass-roots initiative. Bootstraps. Fingers out.” (ep.5, 38:45)

Neoliberismo vs

“There is a division in society today – between those who want to work, and enjoy the fruits of their labour, and abide by and uphold the laws of the land and an increasing number of what it is fashionable to call the disaffected, the disadvantaged, the differently motivated. What we used to call lazy people, dishonest people, people who don't take responsibility for their actions or their lives. […] We are not a nation of social workers or clients of social workers. We are not – please, God – a nation of deserving cases. We are a fierce, proud nation and we are still, God willing, a nation to be reckoned with!” (ep.8, 25) ossessione stato assistenziale + nazionalismo

Conclusioni

● Associazione antieroe al contesto politico contemporaneo (identificazione) – Inserimento elementi narrativi crime fiction (investigazione) ● Aside presa di potere in sistema democratico

● Tensione tra malvagità destoricizzata e contesto contemporaneo riconoscibile

● “The bearer of a subjectivity which is not the antithesis of social process but its focus, in particular the focus of political, social and ideological contradiction” (Dollimore 1993, 50)”

Bibliografia

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