31 January 2008

Reflection on a small selection of Peter Shaffer's plays


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As a frequent awarded winner, Peter Shaffer’s plays are concerning issues of being, identity, freedom, divinity, religion, sex, and so on. In the belief that issues as such are so much involved with a main theme – power, in the following couple entries of reflections, I will examine the power imbalance and illustrate a rough sketch of the relationship between capital and power. On the concept of capital, I intend to derive on Chris Shilling’s definition of capital; on defining power, it is not my intention to define this term with the exploitation of Marxist, or Foucauldian, nor feminist definition. In this series of blog entries, I try to discuss power in accordance with the Columbia cultural theoretical definition, referring to the ability or skill of doing things or “the possession of the capacity to dominate or control someone or something else." From the perspective of close textual reading to the characterizations concerned in the storm of power-imbalance, accompanied with discussions of the concept of capitals in Shaffer's plays - Five Finger Exercise, Shrivings, Equus, Amadeus and The Gift of the Gorgon – I found the issue of power both the center and the catalyst of the characters' quests as well. That is to say, conflicts result from imbalanced power arrangement in these plays. I aim to examine the quest of power in light of capital, which is defined and discussed by Chris Shilling as a site to resist and is changeable. Through symbolized body and knowledge that one possesses, power is embodied by economic success. With that saying, as physical capital and cultural or educational capital, the body and knowledge become exchangeable with power. In other words, the body and knowledge embody power...