Description
Book SynopsisKottman's readings of the drama of William Shakespeare and others against two major treatises in political philosophy—Plato's
Republic and Hobbes's
Leviathan—contest the figural ground from which political philosophy emerges and suggests how a Shakespearean sense of the 'scene' might open up new avenues for thinking about politics.
Trade Review"
A Politics of the Scene is a closely argued but beautifully written book about the centrality of drama for the discourse of political philosophy. The claims of the latter, Kottman argues convincingly, have their origins in the metaphor of the stage, even while they seek to deny its significance. This book contests what Kottman calls the 'figural ground' from which political theory emerges in the West and attempts to replace that theory with a new category for thinking about political life today: the scene."—Jon Snyder, University of California, Santa Barbara
"The brilliance and originality of this book consist specifically in its radical recasting of the metaphorical, figural use of 'theater' and 'drama.' 'Theory' and 'theater,' Kottman reminds us, come from the same etymological root. This splendid book should considerably interest both theorists and those attracted to the immediacy, particularity, and relationality of the theatrical experience." -- Robert Henke * Washington University *
Table of ContentsContents Introduction 000 Part One: Political Theory and the Expropriation of the Scene 1. From Theater to Theory 000 2. Plato: Mimesis 000 3. Hobbes; or, Politics Without a Scene 000 4. The Image of the Leviathan: Figural Unity at the Limits of Representation 000 Part II: Toward a Politics of the Scene 5. Toward a Politics of the Scene 000 6. Memory, Mimesis, Tragedy: The Scene Before Philosophy 000 7. "Speaking As One Witness to Another:" Hamlet and the "Cunning of the 000 Scene" 000 8. A Scene of Speaking: Convocation and the Suspension of Tragedy in 000 Romeo and Juliet 000 Epilogue: The World-Stage 000 Notes 000 Index 000
