Dionysus as Global Rorschach

Abstract

Dionysus as Global Rorschach MARIANNE MCDONALD Agood read.* In this interesting study, Erika Fischer-Lichte claims that Dionysus “has been resurrected as the god of globalization,” primarily “because he is the god of theatre” (229). She claims that her book is “intended for a broad readership,” surely important in a globalized world propelled by a certain capitalistic drive that, coupled with isolated fanaticism, threatens to abolish or limit education to “profitable” subjects, most of which do not include studying the classics—and certainly not those written in ancient dead languages. She addresses the issues of globalization from three main standpoints, as summarized in her Epilogue: 1. Traditional communities dissolve and the question arises how to build new ones . . . 2. The dissolution of traditional communities inevitably leads to the destabilization of collective as well as individual identity. 3. Today culture can no longer be perceived as a fixed or isolated entity. (225) Fischer-Lichte asks how, since we have become globalized, do we deal with this new reality? What does it mean to lose one’s own identity, and will societal confrontation “turn out to be a productive encounter or a destructive clash of cultures or a combination of both” (225)? I like her conclusion that “Dionysus is present” because he represents theatre, *Erika Fischer-Lichte, Dionysus Resurrected: Performances of Euripides ’ The Bacchae in a Globalizing World. Malden, MA and Oxford : John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2014. 238 pages. arion 22.3 winter 2015 which has been in existence since man first learned to play a role to amuse others and which destabilizes identities in the formation of new communities. Fischer-Lichte holds that there is no such thing as “universal truths and values” in Greek tragedy,1 adding that “the concept of universalism must therefore not only be questioned but also abandoned altogether” (xii). But then she goes on to show how ancient Greek plays throughout the ages have been directed to illustrate their themes as they affect contemporary people. So I quarrel at times with some of the sweeping statements that her own text refutes, but I will certainly admit that different peoples express universals in particular ways. Death and the use (or abuse) of power are universal truths, and these are certainly addressed in ancient Greek tragedy. Cacoyannis, among others, has claimed that Euripides’ Trojan Women is the greatest anti-war play of all time. Suzuki used that play to show comparable abuse, as a parallel to the atrocity of Hiroshima, which also left women and children homeless , and men to suffer the effects of radiation for generations. Right now, homeless Syrians are trying to get a visa to the US to perform Euripides’ Trojan Women; the play seems to appeal to many cultures as a criticism of war that victimizes women and children. (By the way, American officials are refusing the visas because the cast of performers have had their homes destroyed, and are technically refugees.) There have always been variations in cultures, and the Greeks were among the first to react negatively (see Edith Hall’s Inventing the Barbarian: Greek Self-Definition through Tragedy).2 Anyone not Greek was a barbarian, who spoke unintelligible words that sounded like “Ba Ba,” not the cultivated language of the “civilized Greek.” Medea and Dionysus were primary examples of the barbarian, and Euripides’ two plays on them frame the beginning and the end of the Peloponnesian War (431 BC and 405 BC, with the war ending in 404 BC). Both Medea and Bacchae question who is the true barbarian; both involve murders of the innocent (terrordionysus as global rorschach 172 ism in antiquity), and both end in devastating punishments for the perceived wrongdoers As R. Winnington-Ingram claimed, “Euripides recognized but hated Dionsysus.”3 I applaud the comment in the book’s preface: “All translations are by their very nature ‘adaptations’ and should be seen as a first step in the process of appropriation culminating in a stage production” (xiii). Having translated all of Greek tragedy, with about half performed, I have always faced the dire truth that the Greek author was a better poet. Another problem was, how in the world would I get this performance to reach a modern audience...