Niki Bippen

March 1, 2016

Judging an Essay by its Title

     As I was looking through the list of model assignments open for review, I came across Dennis Buie’s “Man vs. Nature: A Natural Tragedy” and was immediately intrigued. While I was at first turned off the language, I decided to continue reading because I was captivated by the subject matter. While the essay was interesting, I will admit the numerous grammar issues, wording, and lack of a cohesive strong argument did make it difficult to stick with. The entire time I read through Buie’s essay, I was constantly thinking of that old saying that warns us to never judge a book by its cover or in this case, an essay by its title. Nitpicking aside, it was an interesting argument.

One of my favorite lines from this essay and one that I feel really gives power to his argument occurs early on in the paper and is one of the reasons why I suffered through the sea of grammatical errors. To drive his point home and to give us an insight into what the Africans believed in regards to nature, Buie writes, “the African culture, in direct contrast to the Greeks, felt5 that to overcome the vagaries of nature was not to beat or out-think nature but to become one with it. Becoming one with nature causes mankind to not be affected by the chaos.” This is a particularly great line because it adds strength and depth to his argument as well as helps the reader understand what separates African culture from white culture.

In tragedies, you never really stop to think about how nature is impacted by the presence of men because you are so engrossed by the struggles of the main characters. Needless to say, Buie’s argument is unique, interesting, and not one that many people consider when looking at this texts unless the author goes through great leaps and bounds to put the atrocities suffered by nature right under the reader’s nose. Buie ultimately succeeds in his goal to convince us that tragedies are more than just the struggles of the man versus man. He shows us that tragedies are also a struggle of man versus nature and brings in the differences between how two opposing cultures treat and view the world around them as an added bonus.

Giving Women a much Needed Voice

Just like with Daniel Buie’s essay, I was immediately drawn in by the subject matter of Joffrion Beasley’s. I have always been interested in the struggles of women as well as how they are represented in literature, so this essay seemed like the perfect read and I was right. My first impression was that the essay was well written, constructed, concise, and the argument was very well supported. It flowed easily and I followed along effortlessly which I really appreciated considering the last one I read took some commitment on my part to get through. Buie does a great job of taking popular essay subject matter and presenting it in a fresh manner that keeps the reader engaged while teaching them something that they likely did not know or even consider.

While there are many well-written essays on women’s struggles, what separates Beasley’s from the rest is the fact that he actually takes the time to explore when society changes over “from a female-centric world to a more patriarchal one.” This is something I have been interested in but never bothered to do enough historical or deeper research to discover. Beasley acknowledges that this shift occurs in Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus and supports this claim with evidence from the texts, which is something that I can appreciate. When I went back and reread passages that he draws upon, I realized that he was right and I had honestly never picked up on this subtle but powerful shift. In short, he achieved his goal of showing us when the power shift occurred in these texts, the reasons behind the shift, and how the men were responsible but in the end it was the women who went peacefully that allowed this exchange of power.

Uniting through Differences

     I came into this course with little to no knowledge of African texts, which was the primary reason behind my decision to sign up for it in the first place. Admittedly, I was not that familiar with Greek tragedy either. As I told Dr. White on the first day of class when he asked about our experiences with and knowledge of Greek mythology and texts, “I am only familiar with this stuff from watching Xena” which was an unfortunate truth that in hindsight I probably should have kept to myself. Limited experience with the materials aside, I could not understand how we were going to take two vastly different genres and link them seamlessly together. I assumed this course would focus mostly on the differences while playing up the subtle similarities. However, I was delighted to find that irony, a desire to transcend current situations, and spectacle tie Greek tragedy and African texts together.

     African and Greeks were desperate to transcend the human condition and desired something more than what they were given. Many of the texts that we have read exhume the urge to transcend past our social class, gender, race, etc. and to elevate ourselves higher than the position we are born into or, in the case of Oedipus, to escape the unfair fate that we were given. As we see in the play The Trojan Women, the women are desperate to escape the fate that the Greeks have bestowed upon them. Their city has fallen and now they are reduced to slaves when they were once royalty. While this obviously speaks to irony, it really calls out to the human condition and the desire to transcend past race and gender. The play does an excellent job of subtly displaying issues of race and gender war, calling our attention to current events. Death and the King’s Horseman also echoes the issues of race and gender, mirroring the aforementioned play.

     Referring back to irony, The Trojan Women is an excellent example of the term. The Trojan women from the play all hailed from very rich backgrounds and enjoyed a life of luxury, wealth, and pleasure within the walls of Troy until the Greeks took it all away. During the play, we watched each woman as she fell from her high standing in society and struggled to understand the fate that was bestowed upon her. Princesses became slaves, a noble innocent son was slain, and a virgin was forced into the marriage bed of those who destroyed her city. While they resisted as much as possible and fought hard against the cards being dealt, they were in the end escorted out in chains. As M. Night Shyamalan would say, “what a twist!” Their fight against fate also acts as supporting evidence to the idea of trying to go against fate and destiny but ultimately being too powerless to fight against it.

Oedipus the King also echoes the idea of irony as well as the notion of fighting a hopeless battle against destiny. Oedipus is told that he will marry his mother and slay his father but refuses to believe it. As the prophecy starts to fulfill itself, he fights hard against it believing that he can win. Oedipus does everything within his power to prevent the prophecy from coming true but in an ironic twist of events, is the one that actually serves as the catalyst that causes everything he was fighting so hard against to fall into place perfectly. This speaks volumes to the human struggle and desire to elevate above the hand that fate has given us. The Africans and Greeks both intimately understood not only this desire, but also the futility in fighting against fate. They both knew that ultimately whatever was part of the greater plan would happen regardless of any attempts to prevent or change it. There in lays the tragedy of it all and it this message that draws audiences in.

Plays like the Trojan Women and texts like Death and King’s Horsemen also bring our attention to issues of gender and unite the struggle that both the Greek and the African women faced on a daily basis. As Beasley acknowledges, we begin to see a shift from a matriarchal to a heavily enforced patriarchal society in which women’s voices are all but shut out. While in the Trojan Women play the women certainly are cable of speaking out against the atrocities, there is little they can do to stop the men from taking what they want; including the virgin who will be forced into the bed of her captors. Antigone is another prime example of the oppression faced by women. Early on in the piece, Ismene reminds Antigone “that by birth we’re women, / and, as such, and as such we shouldn’t fight with men. / Since those who rule are much more powerful, we must obey” (76-80). In other words, Ismene is telling Antigone that because they are women, they cannot challenge the rule of the men and must do as they are told because they are not as strong as the men; something that a patriarchal society enforces and a notion that is echoed throughout many of the Greek and African texts covered.

      Lastly, another characteristic that bridges the gap between Greek and African texts is spectacle or rather, lack thereof.  In modern movies, you tend to be overloaded with visual effects, elaborate costumes, and a lot of information that diverts your attention away from the plot and characters. Greek tragedies and African texts are mostly focused on the plot and characters with spectacle often being left to the sidelines. Dr. White acknowledges this and notes that many plays such as Oresteia and Oedipus do not actually show the murders or gory bits on stage but rather allude to them. The point of doing this is to “involve the audience in something higher, nobler… [or] according to Aristotle, ‘fear and pity’ or catharsis” (Dr. White). In other words by suppressing the spectacle, the audience can focus on what’s really important: the plot, the cast, and the meaning.

     While it is certainly difficult to teach such vastly different pieces of literature, I think it is important to have such a broad class that not only speaks to these differences, but also really focuses on bringing the similarities to the light. By uniting African texts with Greek tragedies, we get the feeling that maybe we aren’t so different after all. With all of the race wars, gender oppression, and “them versus us” being perpetuated by the media, it is often difficult to remember that at the end of the day we are all human beings regardless of our skin color, social standing, and gender who are all aspiring towards something greater than what we have been given by fate. Both the African and Greek literary pieces understand the human condition as well as our desire to transcend destiny in order to achieve something greater. This understanding speaks to us as an audience regardless of our life experiences or where we hails from and attempts to unite us all by playing to the subtle similarities.

The Repression of Spectacle: Where it Succeeds and where it Fails

     I am interested in looking at the repression of spectacle in Greek tragedies, particularly where it succeeds and where it fails. Using the form of two research posts, I will explore both in great detail by drawing on the plays discussed in class, Dr. White’s notes, and what critics have had to say. For the first post, I will discuss the benefits to having murder, gore, and other “wow” moments take place off stage. To support my argument, I will borrow heavily from Dr. White’s notes that suggest that by hiding these gruesome details or underplaying them, the audience can in turn focus more on the play, plot, and its message instead of one small scene. Spectacle can severely hinder the audience’s experience of plays, texts, and movies by drawing all of their attention to one small scene that if it is brutal or vivid enough has a tendency to stick and overpower the rest of the plot.

     On the other hand if spectacle is completely downplayed or hidden from the audience, the piece has the potential to bore or lose its appeal. Also, these “wow” moments have a tendency to captivate the audience and bring necessary depth to a work, especially in regards to a performance. For example, the tall, formidable looking tower of Sauron helps to strike fear and dread in the hearts of the viewer. Without these spectacles, we would not truly get a sense of what was so intimidating to the hobbits nor would we appreciate their journey as much. Also, you can only tease your audience so much by writing off spectacle as a necessary element before you either have to give in and give them what they want or you risk losing their interest completely.