Speechless complainer: a derridean reading of Titus Andronicus

The Roman tragedy of Titus Andronicus (1588-1593), the first and perhaps the least popular play of Shakespeare, depicts a non-Aristotelian tragic hero who is gradually decentred from his role and loses sympathy. Despite the fact that the play has been harshly criticised by many critics, Titus has re...

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Main Authors: Datlibeigi, Roohollah, Abbasi, Pyeaam
Format: Article
Language:en
Published: Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2014
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7065/1/4116-14274-1-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7065/
http://ejournals.ukm.my/3l/index
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author Datlibeigi, Roohollah
Abbasi, Pyeaam
author_facet Datlibeigi, Roohollah
Abbasi, Pyeaam
author_sort Datlibeigi, Roohollah
building Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
description The Roman tragedy of Titus Andronicus (1588-1593), the first and perhaps the least popular play of Shakespeare, depicts a non-Aristotelian tragic hero who is gradually decentred from his role and loses sympathy. Despite the fact that the play has been harshly criticised by many critics, Titus has regained its Elizabethan popularity in recent decades, and under the influence of postmodernist readings that focus on the play's fragmentary manner is well-matched with the fragmented contemporary time. This study is an attempt to present a detailed analysis of the language of Titus and the play in general. Using Derridean ideas, it will be argued that Shakespeare, through decentring the dualities of proper/improper language and speech/writing, decentres his protagonist and fills the play with chaos. It will be shown that the presence attributed to speech in Western thought is undermined by Shakespeare, for Titus’ ineffective speech makes him resort to writing which leads to even more chaos in the play. In other words, the Derridean logo centric presence is undermined both in Titus’ spoken and written languages and he can, either through neither speech nor writing, express his intentions. By and large, by decentring his protagonist, Shakespeare has endeavoured to distract the audience's attention from Titus and foreground Elizabeth's lack of a successor reflected in the play.
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institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
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spelling my-ukm.journal-70652016-12-14T06:43:00Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7065/ Speechless complainer: a derridean reading of Titus Andronicus Datlibeigi, Roohollah Abbasi, Pyeaam The Roman tragedy of Titus Andronicus (1588-1593), the first and perhaps the least popular play of Shakespeare, depicts a non-Aristotelian tragic hero who is gradually decentred from his role and loses sympathy. Despite the fact that the play has been harshly criticised by many critics, Titus has regained its Elizabethan popularity in recent decades, and under the influence of postmodernist readings that focus on the play's fragmentary manner is well-matched with the fragmented contemporary time. This study is an attempt to present a detailed analysis of the language of Titus and the play in general. Using Derridean ideas, it will be argued that Shakespeare, through decentring the dualities of proper/improper language and speech/writing, decentres his protagonist and fills the play with chaos. It will be shown that the presence attributed to speech in Western thought is undermined by Shakespeare, for Titus’ ineffective speech makes him resort to writing which leads to even more chaos in the play. In other words, the Derridean logo centric presence is undermined both in Titus’ spoken and written languages and he can, either through neither speech nor writing, express his intentions. By and large, by decentring his protagonist, Shakespeare has endeavoured to distract the audience's attention from Titus and foreground Elizabeth's lack of a successor reflected in the play. Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2014 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7065/1/4116-14274-1-PB.pdf Datlibeigi, Roohollah and Abbasi, Pyeaam (2014) Speechless complainer: a derridean reading of Titus Andronicus. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 20 (1). pp. 49-60. ISSN 0128-5157 http://ejournals.ukm.my/3l/index
spellingShingle Datlibeigi, Roohollah
Abbasi, Pyeaam
Speechless complainer: a derridean reading of Titus Andronicus
title Speechless complainer: a derridean reading of Titus Andronicus
title_full Speechless complainer: a derridean reading of Titus Andronicus
title_fullStr Speechless complainer: a derridean reading of Titus Andronicus
title_full_unstemmed Speechless complainer: a derridean reading of Titus Andronicus
title_short Speechless complainer: a derridean reading of Titus Andronicus
title_sort speechless complainer: a derridean reading of titus andronicus
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7065/1/4116-14274-1-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7065/
http://ejournals.ukm.my/3l/index
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/