Culture, Power & ImagePoli 110DA 25

A quest of immobility

• Final Exam: Wednesday, 8:00– Part I: 30 points• 10 short answer/identifications out of 12-15 choices

– Part II: 35 points• Essay: choose one of two options

– Part III: 35 points• Essay: choose one of two options

• Questions, not answers

Jean Genet• 1910-1986• Son of a prostitute• Sent to penal colony at 15 for theft

from foster family• Leaves prison at 18 by joining Foreign

Legion– Expelled for homosexuality

• Thief, homeless, prostitute• On 10th conviction, sentenced to life

– French intellectuals (among others, Sartre & Picasso) successfully petition president for his pardon

• Anti-existentialist?– Unclear what is true in his life story

• On the ceiling, a chandelier, which will remain the same in each scene– Theatre, image, falsehood– The representation is more real than the

represented– A brothel• Sex, ritual, fetish

Image and Pure Being

• The Judge: My being a judge is an emanation of your being a thief. You need only refuse—you’d better not!—need only refuse to be what you are, therefore who you are—for me to cease to be....to vanish, evaporated. Burst. Volatized. Denied. Good born of... what then? What then? But you won’t refuse, will you? You won’t refuse to be a thief? That would be wicked. It would be criminal. You’d deny me of being! (19)

Image and Pure Being• Sins & crimes– The Bishop (uneasy): What? You mean they were

false? (9)...– The Woman (suddenly coy): And what if my sins were

real?– The Bishop (in a different, less theatrical tone): You’re

mad! I hope you didn’t really do all that! (10)...– The Bishop: If your sins were real, they would be

crimes, and I’d be in a fine mess.– The Woman: Would you go to the police? (10)

Image and Pure Being

• The Bishop: I never desired the episcopal throne. To become a bishop, to work my way up—by means of virtues or vices—would have been to turn away from the ultimate dignity of bishop. I shall explain: (The Bishop speaks in a tone of great precision, as if pursuing a line of logical reasoning) In order to become a bishop, I should have had to make a zealous effort not to be one, but to do what would have resulted in my being one.

• The Chief of Police: That means that you’ve never performed an act for its own sake, but always so that , when linked with other acts, it would make a bishop, a judge, a general... (82)– Not George, but the Chief of Police

Image and Pure Being• (cont’d) Having become a bishop, in order to be

one I should have had—in order to be one for myself, of course!—I should have had to be constantly aware of my being one so as to perform my function. (11)

...• A function is a function. It’s not a mode of being.

But a bishop—that’s a mode of being. It’s a trust. A burden. Mitres, lace, gold-cloth and glass trinkets, genuflections... To hell with the function! (12)

Image and Pure Being

• The Bishop (to the mirror): The majesty, the dignity, that light upon my person, do not emanate from the attributions of my function.—No more, good heavens! than from my personal merit.—The majesty, the dignity, that light me up come from a more mysterious brilliance: the fact that that the bishop precedes me. [...] And in order to destroy all function, I want to cause a scandal and feel you up, you slut, you bitch you trollop, you tramp... (12)

Image and Pure Being• Irma: They all want everything to be as true as possible...

Minus something indefinable, so that it won’t be true. (36)....• Carmen: And what’ll the authentic detail be?

Irma: The ring. He’s got it all worked out. The wedding ring. You know that every nun wears a wedding ring, as a bride of God. (Carmen makes a gesture of astonishment) That’s so. That’s how he’ll know he’s dealing with a real nun.Carmen: What about the fake detail?Irma: It’s almost always the same. Black lace under the homespun skirt. (35)

Image, Authority and Politics

• The Envoy: The Her Majesty is occupying herself in becoming entirely what she must be: the Queen. (He looks at the corpse) She, too, is moving rapidly toward immobility.Irma: And she’s embroidering.The Envoy: No, Madame, I say the Queen is embroidering a handkerchief, for though it is my duty to describe her, it is also my duty to conceal her. Irma: Do you mean that she’s not embroidering?The Envoy: She is embroidering and she’s not embroidering. (62)

Image, Authority and Politics

• Roger: ...So she’s no longer a woman. The creature they make of her out of rage and despair has her price. In order to fight against an image Chantal has frozen into an image. The fight is no longer taking place in reality, but in the lists. Field azure. It’s the combat of allegories. None of us know any longer why we revolted. So she was bound to come round to that. (57)

Image, Authority and Politics

• Chantal: Keep me, if you will, my love, but keep me in your heart. And wait for me.Roger: I love you with your body, with your hair, your bosom, your belly, your guts, your fluids, your smells. Chantal, I love you in my bed. (55)

• The Envoy: ...Chantal’s image is circulating in the streets. An image that resembles her and does not resemble her. She towers above the battles. At first, people were fighting against illustrious and illusory tyrants, then for freedom. Tomorrow, they’ll be ready to die for Chantal alone. (68)– Image =/= person

• Celebrity– The necessary & transformative power of symbols

Image, Authority and Politics

• The Chief of Police: ....if the Queen is dead, everything is jeopardized. She’s my support, it’s in her name that I’m working to make a name for myself.... (63)

Image, Authority and Politics• The Chief of Police: So not a single one of your

clients has had the idea...the remotest idea, the barest suggestion...Irma: No. I know you do what you can. You try hatred and love, but glory gives you the cold shoulder.The Chief of Police (forcefully): My image is growing bigger and bigger. It’s becoming colossal. Everything around me repeats and reflects it. And you’ve never seen it represented in this place? (48)

Image, Authority and Politics

• The Chief of Police: ...(very sadly) Nobody yet! But I’ll make my image detach from me. I’ll make it penetrate into your studious, force its way in, reflect and multiply itself. Irma, my function weighs me down. Here, it will appear to me in the blazing light of pleasure and death. (musingly) Of death. (48)

Image, Authority and Politics

• The Chief of Police: (with conviction) When the rebellion’s been put down, and put down by me, when I’ve the nation behind me and been appealed to by the Queen, nothing can stop me. Then, and only then, will you see who I now am! (Musingly) Yes, my dear, I want to build an empire...so that the empire will, in exchange, build me...Irma: ...a tomb. (49)