Self and Other in Aeschylus' Persians : A propos de Gotscheff
Part of : Γράμμα : περιοδικό θεωρίας και κριτικής ; Vol.22, No.2, 2014, pages 95-107
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95-107
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Exponents par excellence of barbaric "otherness," the characters in Aeschylus' Persians pose a crucial question: how the ancient spectators negotiated their "otherness"? How did it condition their eleos (for the "other") and phobos (for the "self')? Did the performance produce humanitarian sympathy or did it rely on political distanciation? Focusing on the experience of the ancient spectator, as well as the modern one, the paper discusses Aeschylus' play and a set of modern performances of it, with special emphasis on Dimiter Gotscheff's production for the National Theatre of Greece (2009). The paper argues that, as Gotscheff's production showed, for us today the political reading of the play (or, if you prefer, the "tragic") cannot but rely on self-criticism, on a complex negotiation between "self" and "other." For us it is more interesting and politically more productive to see that our democracy may entail totalitarianism; that a political aphasia often creeps into our political logos; and finally, that our political "self may be pregnant with our political "self—and vice versa.
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