Platonic Theater: Rigor and Play in the Republic

Abstract

ion at work in the heterogeneous text of Plato can recommend one to do so.'3 Plato's text would be responsible, if not for a particular interpretation, a particular form of Platonism, at least for a clear formulation of a general tendency to construct a unified metaphysical system. I will contend, however, that the elements of resistance to the rule of are also legiblel4 in Plato's text and that it is this palimpsest structure of Plato's dialogues that makes them truly dramatic. More than any other thesis or theme, the displacement of the old dispute between philosophy and mimesis into the political controversy over the status of both philosophy and art should be pursued in reading the dialogues against their commentary. This is, indeed, the archetypal displacement in/of the totalizing history of Western philosophy often seen as Platonic.'5 The necessity of questioning Platonism as the epitome of Western philosophical system, an allembracing system functioning as an ancilla ideologiae, integrating all social practices, including art, theater and literature, has been affirmed by Althusser in his essay Transformation of Philosophy.16 In fact, such questioning is always already inscribed in what Althusser considers the of in the philosophical (I'irruption de la pratique dans la tradition philosophique), an irruption that transforms philosophy into a theoretical praxis (Sur la philosophie, 151 ff.). A challenge to the traditional notion of authorship/authority is a precondition of such transformation. In this regard the Republic is certainly more dialectical than its interpretations in questioning Plato's and his interpreter's control of the text.17 1022 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.215 on Sun, 24 Jul 2016 05:33:31 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms