「以利！以利！拉馬撒巴各大尼？」：莎拉．肯恩劇作中的褻瀆與救贖 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士論文. 指導教授：邱彥彬. 博士. Advisor：Dr. Yen-bin Chiou. 政治大「以利！以利！拉馬撒巴各大尼？」：莎拉．肯恩劇作中的褻瀆與救贖立 ‧. ‧ 國. 學. “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”: Profanation and Redemption in Sarah Kane’s Plays. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 研究生：林英懋 Name：Ying-mau Lin 中華民國 107 年 07 月 July 2018. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(2) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(3) “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”: Profanation and Redemption in Sarah Kane’s Plays. Presented to Department of English,. 學. National Chengchi University. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. y. ‧. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大 A Master Thesis. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. In Particular Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts by Ying-mau Lin July 2018. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.


(5) Acknowledgement I cannot predict the future, but if I have to conclude my life right now, I would say that my graduate life is truly the most precious time in my life. The intellectual sea is so broad and deep, and I got the chance to dive into it and taste the freshness of knowledge, which all thanks to the guidance and support from many people. Please do forgive me that I cannot cover all, but still, do allow me to give my thanks to some special individuals for without them, it is really impossible for me to be what I am right now. Dear Prof. Chin-yuan Hu, first I have to thank you with all my respect since it was you who introduced me the world of literary theory, and let me know what I really wanted to study. Besides, you kindly chose me to be your teaching assistant, and from that experience, I learned the attitude that one should always treat his job with seriousness as well as sincerity. Dear Prof. Han-yu Huang, Dr. Li-hsin Hsu and Dr. Yih-dau Wu, thank you for being willing to participate in the oral defense of my thesis, and giving me numerous valuable suggestions helping me to improve my work. My dear advisor, Dr. Yen-bin Chiou, the advice and support I received from you were really countless. You directed me to the right wave I should surf for me to iii. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(6) achieve what I really tried to deliver through my words, but not to get drowned in the abyss of misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the texts I studied. I have to apologize that I could not repay all the help I obtained from the members of the Department of English, but my memory would always remind me of your kindness.. 政治大. Finally, my dear family, my parents and my siblings, I believe my mere thank. 立. can never deserve your devotion to me, and even the sacrifice for me. I can only. ‧ 國. 學. promise with my limited life that, no matter what and where I will be, my heart will. ‧. never turn away from you.. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. iv. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(7) Table of Contents. Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………………iii Chinese Abstract……………………………………………………………………...vi English Abstract……………………………………………………………………..viii Chapter. 政治大. 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………..1. 立. Methodology……………………………………………………………..4. ‧ 國. 學. Structure………………………………………………………………….7. ‧. Literature Review………………………………………………………...8. Nat. io. sit. y. 2. Exile and the Kingdom: The State, Law and Human Rights in Blasted….....12. er. “I Am Not Come to Destroy, but to Fulfill.”……………………………21. al. n. v i n C hDisaster………………………………………..........26 The Writing of the engchi U. 3. “You Were My Death”: Reason, Body and Humanity in Cleansed………...41 “I Am That Bread of Life.”……………………………………………..48 Tomorrow’s Eve…………………………………………………………55 4. Conclusion………………………………………………………………….75 Works Cited………………………………………………………………………….86. v. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(8) 國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士班碩士論文提要. 論文名稱：「以利！以利！拉馬撒巴各大尼？」：莎拉．肯恩劇作中的褻瀆與救贖指導教授：邱彥彬博士. 立. 研究生：林英懋. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. 論文提要內容：英國劇作家莎拉．肯恩（Sarah Kane, 1971-1999）的劇作中，人. ‧. 性的光輝往往被極端暴力殘酷地褻瀆，但於此同時，在她作品結尾卻也往往充盈. Nat. io. sit. y. 著救贖的氣息。而這揉合褻瀆與救贖的特色，使肯恩的作品不只在劇場界留下不. er. 可抹滅的一筆，也留下了亟待解決的神秘。肯恩曾經表示她的個性與智識常在她. al. n. v i n Ch 童年的基督教信仰，以及成年後非基督教的思想中擺盪。一方面她意識到人類命 engchi U 定的逝去，另一方面她也無法拋棄人類得到救贖的可能性。而有鑑於肯恩與基督教的關係，以及在其作品行間不時出現的宗教指涉，此篇論文將嘗試指出肯恩作品中的殘酷褻瀆，事實是如同基督受難般，闡述並指出了人類救贖的路途。而為求證明，此篇論文選擇了肯恩五部劇作中，最具原創性與最清楚展現肯恩思想特色的《驚爆》（Blasted, 1995）與《滌洗》（Cleansed, 1998）集中分析論述。研究方法上則是會使用阿岡本（Giorgio Agamben）的生命政治概念，因在 vi. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(9) 其著述中，不只指出當代人類社會對於人性必定的背離，也討論了人類該如何脫離這種人性的懸置狀態。因此阿岡本的概念將會用以分析肯恩的作品情節以及基督受難的過程，以指明兩者間的關係。論文首先會指出肯恩劇中角色受到的非人待遇，其實是源於人類存在本身必定踏入的非人性化過程。並會討論基督如何藉. 政治大. 由放下對於人性的追求，讓自己不被人類世界包括，進而拾起另一種生命的可能. 立. 性。最後通過將肯恩劇作與基督救贖納入阿岡本理論的脈絡中，發現兩者之間的. ‧ 國. 學. 對話關係。最終使論文能總結道肯恩文字中所展現的殘酷暴力，事實上指向與十. ‧. 字架上鮮血相同的結局。. io. sit. y. Nat. er. 關鍵字：神聖之人（homo sacer）、人性／非人性、褻瀆／救贖、不去運作. n. al. i n C （inoperativity）、不被包括（destitution） hengchi U. v. vii. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(10) Abstract The British playwright, Sarah Kane (1971-1999), makes her name for the extreme presentation of profaning violence in her plays, but at the same time, the redemptive air can always be felt at the end of her works. This fusion of profanation. 政治大. and redemption is not only the unique mark of Kane’s words in the theatrical world,. 立. but also the key mystery waiting to be deciphered for her plays to be understood well.. ‧ 國. 學. Kane once said that her characteristic and thought were always under the struggle. ‧. between her childhood Christian belief, and her adult thinking beyond Christianity,. Nat. io. sit. y. and that is, the struggle between the belief that human beings are destined to be saved,. er. and the thinking that human beings are doomed to face their hopeless decease. For. al. n. v i n Kane’s relation with Christianity asC well U allusions Kane h ase some h iChristian n g cclear. makes in her plays, the thesis would aim to argue that through presenting the most profaning cruelty, Kane’s works, as Christ’s crucifixion, really aim to point out the way toward redemption of the human. For proving the argument, the thesis would analyze two of Kane’s five plays, Blasted (1995) and Cleansed (1998), in detail for they reveal Kane’s original ideas more effectively and clearly than her other works. Besides, the thesis would use viii. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(11) Giorgio Agamben’s biopolitical theory as the main approach since Agamben does not only argue that the human really live as the forsaken in the human society, but also talks about the way for the human to be freed from this forsakenness. Therefore, Agamben’s theory would be applied to analyze both Kane’s words, and Christ’s. 政治大. crucifixion in order to build up the relation between them. The thesis would point out. 立. first that Kane’s characters are treated inhumanly since being human itself is doomed. ‧ 國. 學. to cause one’s own dehumanization. Then, the thesis would discuss how Christ. ‧. redeems his life by laying down his human existence, and destituting himself from the. Nat. io. sit. y. human world. Finally, the dialogues between Christ’s journey toward redemption and. er. Kane’s lines would be built with the aid of Agamben’s theory. So the thesis can. al. n. v i n conclude at the end that the C merciless in Kane’s words truly leads to the h e nviolence gchi U similar end as the bloodshed on the cross.. Keywords: homo sacer, human/inhuman, redemption/profanation, inoperativity, destitution. ix. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.


(13) Chapter One Introduction And about the ninth hour Christ cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? ——Matthew 27:46.. 政治大. You’d have watched them crucify me.. 立. ——Cleansed, Sarah Kane 129.. ‧ 國. 學. The echo between the dying cry of Christ, and the line written by the British. ‧. playwright, Sarah Kane (1971-1999), can be heard clearly in the epigraphs. Though. Nat. io. sit. y. Kane’s plays make their name for the extreme presentation of profanation while. er. violence, rape, incest, murder, and suicide haunting every corner in her scripts do not. al. n. v i n C h redemption, she U seem to promise any way toward e n g c h i never fails to let the audience sense the redemptive air at the end of her plays. Even when the characters seem to end up in the most inhuman and forsaken condition, the audience can still see peace and harmony on their faces. With the fusion of these two paradoxical elements, profanation and redemption, Kane’s plays leave their unique mark in the theatrical world, and this thesis would aim to decipher this unique fusion by building up the dialogues between Kane’s plays and the most iconic redemptive moment in the 1. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(14) Western world, Christ’s crucifixion. There is a debate I constantly have with myself because I was brought up as a Christian, and for the first sixteen years of my life I was absolutely convinced that there was a God . . . . I seriously believed that Jesus was going to come again in my lifetime and that I wouldn’t have to die. So when I got to about eighteen and nineteen and it suddenly hit me that the. 政治大. thing I should have been dealing with at all. So there is a constant debate. 立. in my head of really not wanting to die－being terrified of it—and also. ‧ 國. 學. having this constant thing that you can’t really shake if you’ve believed it. ‧. that hard and that long as a child－that there is a God, and somehow I’m. Nat. al. er. io. kind of personality and intellect. (Saunders 22). sit. y. going to be saved. So, I suppose in a way that split is a split in my own. n. v i n C hKane reveals that the In the interview by Graham Saunders, e n g c h i U“split” between her childhood Christian belief and her adult thinking beyond Christianity greatly influences her life. The terror of grim human destiny with no prospect of salvation, and the hope of upcoming redemption are intertwined, and developed into the unique texture of her “personality and intellect.” And Kane’s works do not leave out any phases of her ambiguous pondering over the fusion of the profane and redemptive elements in her words. Besides, the Christian ideas which are sometimes found in her 2. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(15) lines show that her plays do not only aim to display a series of violent crimes, but also try to show the way toward redemption as Christ’s crucifixion demonstrates. Christ’s crucifixion should not be considered purely redemptive. It is also simultaneously profane since all “unrighteousness is sin” (1 John 5:17), and Christ whose “own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). Paradoxically, as the blood of sinful life cleans “us from all sin” (1 John 1:7), his. 政治大. wounds save us from “being dead to sins” (1 Peter 2:24), and his crucifixion makes us. 立. “live unto righteousness.” Paul preaches that “wages of sin is death; but the gift of. ‧ 國. 學. God is eternal life” (Roman 6:23). Christ on the cross, therefore, receives both “the. ‧. wages of sin” and “the gift of God.” “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” cries Christ before. Nat. io. sit. y. his death (Matthew 27:46). Christ feels his forsakenness for he is crucified as a sinner. er. against God. But his questioning tone reveals that his sacrifice cannot be just. al. n. v i n C h but it must unveilUsome possibility of his life he concluded by his being forsaken, engchi cannot see or perceive if he does not lay down his earthly life. And his question is answered through his resurrection, and through the hope of redemption his life presents to the earth. Then, with her relation with Christianity, it is possible that the cruel plots Kane designs in her plays also aim to shed light on the new possibility of human life. In order to verify this assumption, this thesis would discuss first why the human need to be provided some new way to live, and that is, why the human need to 3. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(16) be redeemed. After specifying and clarifying the multifarious disasters devastating human life, the thesis would then point out how profanation plays a significant role in redemption, which will be demonstrated in the following chapters by connecting human sufferings with Christ’s redemptive journey. Finally, the thesis would show how Kane displays the human disastrous condition through her words, and how the fusion of profanation and redemption in her works leads to the redemption Christ accomplishes on the cross.. I. Methodology. 學. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大. ‧. Talking about the human devastating condition, in his Homo Sacer series,. Nat. io. sit. y. Giorgio Agamben argues that the human being nowadays are destined to live as homo. er. sacer (sacred man), an identity given to the convict in ancient Roman law, which. al. n. v i n means the human are always neededCtohbe redeemed for existing e n g c h i U always as the. condemned. Agamben asserts that this ancient paradoxical concept of “sacer” (sacred) “before or beyond the religious, constitutes the first paradigm of the political realm of the West” (Homo Sacer 9). Like Christ introduces the most important moment of redemption, the concept of homo sacer also presents the most fundamental “paradigm” of the human society in the Western world. The concept of homo sacer, therefore, would be the main approach for the thesis to analyze both Kane’s works 4. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(17) as well as Christ’s crucifixion since Agamben’s concept of homo sacer is really concerned about the present human condition, and at the same time, it contains its ancient root, so it would be used to bridge the distance between the modern plays and the archaic event. Initially, homo sacer is used to designate someone who should devote his life to God in order to save the community from catastrophe, but still keeps alive. It then. 政治大. comes to connote an unusual form of punishment through which the culprit is. 立. judicially characterized as someone who “belongs to God in the form of. ‧ 國. 學. unsacrificeability and is included in the community in the form of being able to be. ‧. killed” with impunity (82). Designated as homo sacer, in other words, one’s life is. Nat. io. sit. y. related to God by being forever forsaken by God insofar as homo sacer refers to. er. someone who is being expelled at once from the divine order (unsacrificeability) and. al. n. v i n C h with impunity). While human community (can be killed e n g c h i U being unable to reach God, homo sacer cannot be welcomed by his hometown as well for he is already being deemed as the sacrificed, so much so that everyone can kill him without fear of the. charge of murder. “Life that cannot be sacrificed and yet may be killed is sacred life” (82). The sacred life of homo sacer is not accepted by heaven, and not protected by the human world. It is the life that should be dead in order to accomplish its sacredness. Therefore, it is the life profaning its own sacredness by simply being 5. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(18) alive. Bearing its sacred name, homo sacer is really nothing but the forsaken life. The sacredness of life, which is invoked today as an absolutely fundamental right in opposition to sovereign power, in fact originally expresses precisely both life’s subjection to a power over death and life’s irreparable exposure in the relation of abandonment. (83) In modern society, it is self-evident that every human life has its own singular value. 政治大. and its inherent sacredness should be protected by human rights from any form of. 立. violation. Agamben, however, challenges the idea of human sacredness by relating the. ‧ 國. 學. concept of homo sacer to the present human condition. It is like even the Messiah. ‧. would be lynched and killed. Human sacredness is really illusionary as “sacer” in the. Nat. io. sit. y. name of the condemned, and is destined to be profaned and forsaken. But even the. er. forsaken can still achieve redemption as Kane’s characters, who are in many ways. al. n. v i n Chish Homo Sacer series, reminiscent of Christ on the cross. In e n g c h i U Agamben also discusses how the human being can be freed from his catastrophic condition. So Agamben’s theory would not only be used to analyze the disastrous human condition, but would also be used to decipher the redemption happening on the cross as well as the redemption occurring in Kane’s works in order to show how the human being can be redeemed, not in spite of, but because of his profaned sacredness.. 6. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(19) II. Structure Within Kane’s five theatrical works, Blasted (1995) and Cleansed (1998) would be the main research materials of the thesis. The selection is made not because her other plays do not address the issue about profanation and redemption. On the contrary, it is exactly because Kane’s concern about the issue can be seen in all her works, the selection has to be made, so the thesis can go deep into the core of the. 政治大. issue by focusing on the plays most strongly expressing the “split” of Kane’s mind.. 立. First of all, Blasted and Cleansed are the original story unlike Kane’s Phaedra’s Love. ‧ 國. 學. which is an adaptation of an ancient Roman tragedy, Phaedra, by Seneca. Secondly,. ‧. both the plays have clear storylines which Kane’s Crave and 4.48 Psychosis do not. Nat. io. sit. y. have due to their experimental style which makes their redemptive and profane. er. elements hard to be identified with certainty. Therefore, the third and fourth chapters. al. n. v i n C hto analyzing Kane’s of the thesis would be dedicated e n g c h i U Blasted and Cleansed respectively in order to decipher the unique topic of Kane’s works.. Blasted is set in a hotel room, and Cleansed is set in a university. Both the plays are set in the places every human being can reach daily, but their daily quality does not prevent the characters from their inhuman sufferings, which shows how human life can be profaned even in the most normal circumstances. So the other reason for my selection is that Kane’s Blasted and Cleansed are concerned respectively about 7. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(20) both the phases of human life, and that is the public and private phases. Blasted is about war, and since the declaration of war belongs to the power of State, the second chapter, “Exile and the Kingdom,” would aim to discuss the human condition in the human society in which the human are regulated by the law, and governed by the State for living as the human but not as unregulated beasts. On the other hand, Cleansed is about human body and love, the elements that are always regarded private. 政治大. and irreplaceable for each individual since no one can love the same as others, and no. 立. other species can use their bodies with reason as the human being. Therefore, the third. ‧ 國. 學. chapter, “‘You Were My Death,’” would be devoted to the discussion of the human. ‧. condition shown by one’s own body and mind. Finally, the fourth chapter would. Nat. io. sit. y. conclude the thesis by showing the overall picture about Kane’s idea about how the. n. al. er. human being is profaned, and how the human being can be redeemed in the society, and with himself alone.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. III. Literature Review The studies of Sarah Kane still do not bloom into variety since her works might not stand long enough for scholars to explore with more diverse approaches, and her works are never regarded as canon by the public for their extreme quality. Most of the time, the researches of Kane’s plays are done from the perspectives of theater studies 8. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(21) while the symbolic and poetic language of Kane’s theater is still attracting scholars to clarify the mysterious theatrical elements of Kane’s works. And this kind of studies is mostly conducted in the following two ways. First, Kane’s own words, the words of Kane’s colleagues and friends, and the comments of critics and news are discussed in detail in order to piece together what Kane really want to say by her works. Graham Saunders’ ‘Love me or kill me’ and Aleks Sierz’s In-Yer-Face Theatre are the two. 政治大. major works that provide the biographical information of Kane’s life and its relation. 立. with her works as Saunder asserts that in his book he tries “as much as possible, to let. ‧ 國. 學. [Kane’s] own words provide the commentary on her own work” (x). And Sierz also. ‧. introduces his work by the words as follows:. Nat. io. sit. y. It is mainly concerned with conveying what plays are like when you see. er. them in performance, what it feels like to see a whole rash of new work,. al. n. v i n Cthe how the shock of and how meaning is created from h enewnisgdiscussed chi U the experience of theatregoing. . . . One of this book’s main sources is interviews with writers, as well as with other theatre workers. (xi) The second major way to study Kane’s works theatrically would be to analyze Kane’s plays by theater theories, and in this case, Antonin Artaud’s “Theater of Cruelty” is applied most frequently like Clare Wallace’s “Sarah Kane, Experimental Theatre and the Revenant Avant-Garde” and Lauren De Vos’s Cruelty and Desire in 9. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(22) the Modern Theater all showing the clear relation between Kane’s and Artaud’s works. Renouncing psychological man, with his well-dissected character and feelings, and social man, submissive to laws and misshapen by religions and percepts, the Theater of Cruelty will address itself only to total man. (Artaud 123). 政治大. Wallace compares Kane’s theater with Artaud’s idea of the “total theatre” since Kane. 立. like Artaud does not leave out the hideous elements of human life like “extremity,. ‧ 國. 學. cruelty and madness” in her works (Wallace 95). Artaud desires the theater showing. ‧. not only the humanistic man acting through his reason and under the regulation, but. Nat. io. sit. y. he wants the stage to unveil the human being’s oppressed side which is always. er. regarded simply as “imagination and dreams” though it weighs as “the reality”. al. n. v i n Cwhat (Artaud 123). Artaud wishes to show human being truly is, to show what is h ethe ng chi U kept veiled in humanity, and that is inevitably to be cruel for human “consciousness . . . gives to the exercise of every act of life its blood-red color, its cruel nuance” (102). The cruel plots of Kane, therefore, really aim to uncover the sugarcoat of human society as De Vos argues, “Following Artaud, Kane regards this reality, which we consider normality, as sheer madness. To survive in our society is not possible unless we prepare to surrender to the madness of the lie” (Cruelty 141). 10. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(23) This thesis, however, tries to prove that the appeal of Kane’s plays is exuded not only through the stage performance. The uncanny power of the playwright’s texts is also the pull factor that motivates me to gauge their philosophical import through the lens of Agamben’s theory. And the similar approach can be seen in Julia Boll’s The New War Plays in which Kane’s plays are discussed by Agamben’s political ideas. She argues that Kane’s works, especially Blasted, display the new kind of war. 政治大. of modern world in which “the dualisms that used to define the differences between. 立. war and peace, military and civil” are “increasingly blurred” (26). Like the thesis,. ‧ 國. 學. Julia Boll also points out that Kane’s words show the devastating human condition. ‧. that sacred human rights and humanity are always profaned as peace is no more. Nat. io. sit. y. distinguishable from war. She puts her focus, however, mainly on the elements related. er. to war, like “public trauma,” “grief and mourning,” “testimony and voyeurism of. al. n. v i n C h (2). This thesis isUdistinguishable from Boll’s book witness other people’s suffering” engchi in that the main focus of the thesis is not on war, but on the human condition presented within the interactions between the individual and State, and between the individual and his body as well as his mind. Besides, Boll’s book does not touch upon the redemptive phase of Kane’s works, and that phase would be shown in the following chapters by building up the dialogues between Kane’s plays and Christ’s life with the aid of Agamben’s words. 11. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(24) Chapter Two Exile and the Kingdom: The State, Law and Human Rights in Blasted “The orders? I’m not . . .” Daru hesitated, not wanting to hurt the old Corsican. “I mean, that’s not my job.” “What! What’s the meaning of that? In wartime people do all kinds of jobs.”. 立. 政治大. “Then I’ll wait for the declaration of war!”. ‧ 國. 學. Balducci nodded.. ‧. “O.K. But the orders exist and they concern you too. Things are brewing,. Nat. sit. n. al. er. io. way.”. y. it appears. There is talk of a forthcoming revolt. We are mobilized, in a. v i n C h ——“The Guest,” e n g c h i U Albert Camus. 29-30.. In the short story collected in Camus’ Exile and the Kingdom, the protagonist believes that he has the rights to reject the order irrelevant to his duty while war is still on its way, and the situation is still normal but not exceptional. “But the orders exist and they concern you too.” The special order which should only be given during wartime by the State, however, has always already penetrated into the people’s normal life. So the special order is never special, and 12. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(25) war has always already arrived. The special order always keeps its eye on the people not only when there is a war, but also when the society still looks peaceful. It is like when one slightly removes the sugarcoat of peace, the fire of war would blaze in our face, and one’s normal life is never normal but only the veiled state of exception. Sarah Kane’s Blasted is about war. In the play, the fire of war breaks out abruptly, and. 政治大. turns the normal life into hell. And the law which one believes to be the guardian. 立. of one’s life is proven unable to preempt the catastrophe. One cannot help. ‧ 國. 學. wondering if the law serves just to mesmerize the people with the delusion of. ‧. peace thereby plunging them into the turmoil of war, into the state of exception. Nat. io. sit. y. without noticing it. If it is how the law works, one’s life even in peace is. er. inevitable as the life in war, as the life of homo sacer who can be killed with no. al. n. v i n C hresponsibility. ThisUidea is vividly shown by need of assuming any juridical engchi. Kane’s Blasted in which war appears, and replaces peace in the smoothest style without being blocked by the law. The characters are tortured extremely cruelly by the unexpected war, and this intensity of violence makes peace nothing but a distant dream. Therefore, for understanding Blasted well, one first needs to know the somber reality of war. “The state of exception” is one of the most important concepts in Agamben’s Homo Sacer series, and by discussing it, Agamben 13. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(26) unveils the fact that war always exists even when peace still prevails. The concept, therefore, would be introduced and used in this chapter as the key for dissolving the mystery of the abrupt war in Blasted. It is expected that the State would declare the exceptional situation when the country encounters the emergency like catastrophe or war which cannot be readily managed. By declaring the exceptional situation, the State can activate. 政治大. the special order immediately without going through the normal time-consuming. 立. legislation process. In the circumstances, the law is suspended to give way to the. ‧ 國. 學. new order. Agamben admits that, historically speaking, the exceptional situation. ‧. is designed to deal with the emergency including war, and that is why Italian and. Nat. io. sit. y. French theories discuss it with the terms “emergency degrees” and “state of. er. siege,” and Anglo-Saxon theory with the term, “martial laws” (State of. al. n. v i n C h to use the termUused in German Exception 4). Agamben, however, chooses engchi theory, “state of exception,” to discuss the concept as he asserts that the exceptional situation is not operated merely in the emergency situation like war, but its operation is inseparable from the use of daily law (4). It is because the state of exception is created with the suspension of daily law, and that is how the special order departing from the law, and sometimes even working against the law, can be activated. The state of exception, therefore, points to the “threshold 14. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(27) or limit concept” for the law (4). It hoops the law, and tells how far the law can go. And by being able to declare the state of exception, and suspend the law, the power of State is actually beyond the law. That is how the State is regarded as the sovereign power nowadays as Carl Schmitt argues in Political Theology, “Sovereign is he who decides on the exception” (5), and the “the existence of the state is undoubted proof of its superiority over the validity of the legal norm. The. 政治大. decision frees itself from all normative ties and becomes in the true sense. 立. law, why is the daily law needed in the first place?. 學. ‧ 國. absolute” (12). Then, if the State is sovereign for its being able to go beyond the. ‧. The exception appears in its absolute form when a situation in which. Nat. io. sit. y. legal prescriptions can be valid must first be brought about. Every. er. general norm demands a normal, everyday frame of life to which it. al. n. v i n can be factuallyC applied is subjected to its regulations. h e nandgwhich chi U (Schmitt 13). The law is needed because the law provides the stage for the State to activate its absolute authority. The law defines what normal life is, and in this way, the power of law influences everyone’s life. One can choose to follow the law or to break the law, but nobody can act beyond the law as the State does. And it is also by this regulation of law, one’s human rights can be defined since the law tells 15. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(28) everyone how one should or can act. For example, by telling the people that they should not kill, the sacred rights of human life are clearly shown. The State, however, is able to work beyond the law, and that is, is able to profane the sacred human rights defined by the law. “The exception reveals most clearly the essence of the state’s authority” (Schmitt 13). The law that binds all the people makes everyone’s life the stage where the State can activate its absolute power by being. 政治大. able to suspend the law. By being able to suspend the law, the State can ignore. 立. the wall built by the law, and dominate the people without one’s basic rights. ‧ 國. 學. being the obstacle. The sovereign power of State is absolute for its domination. ‧. penetrates into everyone’s everyday life.. Nat. io. sit. y. In modern democracy, when one is asked about what constitutes the State,. er. one may not hesitate to answer that the people under the government of State. al. n. v i n C h “a Commonwealth” form the Sate, and the State is unquestionably (Hobbes 3) engchi U belonging to all the people. Then, to preserve the State, at the same time, is to protect the people for the State is united by the people to keep their “peace and defence” (109). The law is enforced to regulate the people for keeping everything peaceful, but the force of law cannot be unlimited. The people, therefore, unite one another as the State whose power is beyond the law in order to hoop the law with the hands of people. So the law may not go astray, but 16. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(29) keeps caring each individual. It is, therefore, each individual empowers the State to suspend the law “on the basis of its right of self-preservation” (Schmitt 12) because this empowerment, at the same time, is also for preserving everyone’s human rights. The paradox is that in order to live humanly, the people are left with no choice but only to accept the government of State whose power is beyond the law which defines human rights. Can the people, therefore, really live. 政治大. humanly by uniting themselves as the State when they are inevitably being. 立. governed by the State inhumanly?. ‧ 國. 學. Everything happens as if, along with the disciplinary process by. ‧. which State power makes man as a living being into its own specific. Nat. io. sit. y. object, another process is set in motion that in large measure. er. corresponds to the birth of modern democracy, in which man as a. al. n. v i n C h himself no longerUas an object but as the living being presents engchi. subject of political power. These processes—which in many ways oppose and (at least apparently) bitterly conflict with each other— nevertheless converge insofar as both concern the bare life of the citizen, the new biopolitical body of humanity. (Homo Sacer 9) I am the object under the regulation of law, so my rights of life are defined. But being the object of law kept in the hands of State which can work beyond the 17. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(30) law to benefit itself, I live as homo sacer, and my life is just “the bare life” whose rights can be violated anytime without causing any juridical responsibility. However, living in the modern democratic State, I am also the subject uniting the sovereign power, and the State is formed by the people like me who tries to keep the law protecting our rights of life. The State has the power to go beyond the law because the law needs to be under control by the. 政治大. hands of people. So in order to live humanly, I let myself be cast into the hands. 立. of the sovereign whose power is shown by being able to suspend the law and. ‧ 國. 學. produce the state of exception where every human life lives as the bare life.. ‧. Life, which is thus obliged, can in the last instance be implicated in. Nat. io. sit. y. the sphere of law only through the presupposition of its inclusive. er. exclusion, only in an exceptio. There is a limit-figure of life, a. al. n. v i n threshold in which life C is both h einside i U the juridical order, n g candhoutside and this threshold is the place of sovereignty. (Homo Sacer 27) In order to live humanly under the protection of law, I first have to be governed by the sovereign power dominating people by being able to go beyond the law. That is, I am included by the law through being excluded by it. For being the subject of State, I let myself be devoured in the “sovereign sphere” (Homo Sacer 85) of State where the suspension of law, and the profanation of sacred human 18. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(31) rights become normal. In the constitutional State, the mechanism suspending the law is built in the law itself. The law is designed to be suspendable as Agamben argues, “Law is made of nothing but what it manages to capture inside itself through the inclusive exclusion of the exceptio: it nourishes itself on this exception and is a dead letter without it” (Homo Sacer 27). The law is nothing if it is not given the. 政治大. form and limited by the state of exception. The law is responsible for caring. 立. everyone’s life by embracing the possibility of its being suspended by the State. ‧ 國. 學. which is united by the people. The law is activated to protect human rights by. ‧. witnessing the people to be governed as homo sacer whose life is naked under. Nat. io. sit. y. the power beyond the law.. er. Foucault in “Society Must Be Defended.” asserts that “we have to interpret. al. n. v i n C hpeace; peace itselfUis a coded war” (51). And the the war that is going on beneath engchi mechanism of the state of exception proves his statement well. The state of exception, that is originally created only in the emergency situation like war, is applied daily by the State for it to sustain its absolute domination of all the people. Peace, therefore, is sustained by the mechanism of war. And the people for keeping their human rights give themselves into hands of the sovereign in which human life is readily subject to violation just as the life rendered 19. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(32) precarious during wartime. That the war in Blasted breaks out so suddenly indicates that peace, once its glossy façade is torn off, is nothing but “a coded war.” The characters are lynched cruelly since human life is always already devoured by the power without any mercy at all. The extreme desperate plots of the play seem to imply that for the human, there is no any way out, and there is no hope at all. However,. 政治大. in the interview by Aleks Sierz, Kane argues, “Blasted is a hopeful play” (Sierz. 立. 120). If in Blasted, Kane does not only talk about the hidden cruelty, but also. ‧ 國. 學. reveals the gleam of hope, it would be essential for one to ask whether. ‧. redemption is still possible under the shadow of the state of exception in order to. Nat. io. sit. y. properly understand the play. Therefore, in the next section, Christ’s crucifixion. er. would be analyzed with the concept of the state of exception for one to see if. al. n. v i n C his still realizable. U redemption under the state of exception e n g c h i Finally, in the last section of the chapter, by seeing how Kane’s play echoing with Christ’s crucifixion and the concept of the state of exception, one may see the way toward hope disclosed.. 20. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(33) I. “I Am Not Come to Destroy, but to Fulfill.” Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors . . . . ——Isaiah 53:12 In Ten Commandments, the law, “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13) is. 政治大. declared by God through Moses. Though the law is declared long after God. 立. creates the world, by seeing that God punishes Cain for his murder, it is clear that. ‧ 國. 學. God’s law is operated even before the time of its declaration. Then, if God’s law. ‧. always prohibits one from killing, how can God’s authority still be built when. Nat. io. sit. y. God orders Abraham to slay his only son for testing Abraham’s loyalty? If God. er. should be always right, the righteousness of God must work beyond the law. And. al. n. v i n Cthat that is why Paul would assert of God without the law is h e“then righteousness gchi U manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets” (Roman 3:21). So in God’s prophecy about the coming of Messiah, Christ is “numbered with the. transgressors” because it is the righteousness of God that Christ aims to achieve through his sacrifice. Schmitt argues that the sovereign is someone who is able to decide on the exception, and that is, is someone whose power is beyond the law. Then, God should be undeniably the sovereign since his authority is inseparable 21. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(34) from the mechanism of the state of exception. Through Christ’s lifetime, he is not afraid to preach the new order different from the old law in the name of God. He challenges Hebrew temple, and calls “scribes and Pharisees” all “hypocrites” (Matthew 23:13). Christ seems to wage war on the land governed by God. Christ, however, asserts, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill”. 政治大. (Matthew 5:17). He argues that he challenges the law not for damaging God’s. 立. authority, but for fulfilling God’s will. Christ is not like Cain who breaks the law. ‧ 國. 學. in his own will. Like Abraham breaks the law for obeying God, Christ acts only. ‧. in God’s will as he asserts, “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge:. Nat. io. sit. y. and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the. er. Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30). So when Cain attacks God’s authority. al. n. v i n C h God’s authority by acting in himself alone, Christ embraces e n g c h i U by forsaking his. rights as an autonomous individual. The challenges Christ conducts unveil the mechanism of God’s righteousness in order to let the people know that it is impossible to attain God’s Kingdom by knowing only the law because to ignore the existence of the state of exception is to ignore the core of God’s power. Before his arrest, Christ tells his disciples, “For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the 22. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(35) transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end.” (Luke 22:37). Christ’s wrestle with the Hebrew juridical system is a behavior to accept his fate as the existence being inclusively excluded by the law under God’s authority. As Abraham really intends to slay his son to show his being totally in God’s hands, Christ devotes himself wholly to God by recognizing his destiny as homo sacer included in the protection of law by being excluded by it. Christ’s challenge is an. 政治大. action to let himself burned by the fire of war where God’s authority is shown.. 立. He must be teased, lynched, and treated not as a human being in order to achieve. ‧ 國. 學. God’s righteousness. That is how the cross that used to punish the profane. ‧. criminal becomes the symbol of redemption after Christ’s crucifixion. The cross. Nat. io. sit. y. where Christ sheds his blood shows the end of Christ’s challenges leading to. er. where his life aims to attain. Then, where does Christ’s life aim? If Christ’s death. al. n. v i n C h what is exactlyUthe redemption God shows the way toward redemption, engchi promises?. The idea of the arrival of God’s Kingdom after the end of the world is vital in Christian belief. Christ promises the people that if they believe in him, they should be resurrected after death (John 11:25). He preaches, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my 23. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(36) sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” (Mark 8:34-35). One must follow Christ’s way of life, and put one’s whole self in God’s hands without caring one’s own rights in order to embrace the life God’s redemption aims to achieve. One’s life can be redeemed only when one is willing to lay down his earthly life. Then, what is the difference between the earthly life and afterlife? Paul articulates the concept about the world after resurrection by saying, “Then. 政治大. cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the. 立. Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power” (1. ‧ 國. 學. Corinthians 15:24). According to Paul, the resurrected people would inhabit in. ‧. God’s Kingdom where the law as well as every mechanism of power would all. Nat. io. sit. y. be “put down,” as Agamben explains in The Kingdom and the Glory, insofar as. er. God’s Kingdom is with “every providential operation exhausted and with all. al. n. v i n administration of salvation coming C to an It does not mean that the h end” e n (162). gchi U law and government are totally destroyed, but they are only “put down,” and that is, they exist, but simply act “inoperatively.” Then, why is redemption achieved not by destroying the law and governing power, but by putting them down? The reason why the law and governing power are needed lies in the fact that the people desire for peace and to defend their lives against chaos and war. If the society is lawless and unregulated, war and chaos cannot be prevented, and 24. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(37) the people’s lives are always under the threat of violence and death. However, insofar as the law and governing power are themselves sustained by the mechanism of war, people are still exposed to the imminent threat of violence and death. The destruction of the law and governing power cannot achieve peace and harmony. But if they are maintained as they stand today, there is ironically little prospect of peace and harmony. Rendering them inoperative, therefore,. 政治大. could be the possible way to dissolve this dilemma. It is because when their. 立. “work is deactivated and rendered inoperative,” they would be “restored to. ‧ 國. 學. possibility, opened to the new possible use” (The Use of Body, Agamben 247).. ‧. So when the law works inoperatively, the possibility that the law does not. Nat. io. sit. y. include the people by excluding them is revealed. And as the governing power. er. works inoperatively, the possibility that the people are not governed through. al. n. v i n Cishalso shown. Then,Uthere is still hope, and it is being turned into homo sacer engchi revealed only when one treads on the way of Christ who is willing to be treated inhumanly because he accepts that he is in the fire of war. If one believes that he has already gained the harmony of life, how can he still strive to redeem his life? “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it” (Romans 8:24-25). I hope for what is not owned, but 25. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(38) not what is already in my possession. If I hold the thing I hope for in my hands, why and how can I still hope for the thing? Only when one senses that he is not in peace but war, redemption would be hoped for, and the possibility of different life can be shown. Redemption and cruelty, therefore, have to be inseparable from each other, which is clearly displayed by Christ crucifixion as well as Kane’s Blasted.. 立. 政治大. II. The Writing of the Disaster. ‧ 國. 學. Before it is there, no one awaits it; when it is there, no one recognizes it:. ‧. for it is not there－the disaster.. io. y. sit. Nat. ——The Writing of the Disaster, Maurice Blanchot 36.. er. Kane’s Blasted lets war show through peace. The war in the story makes its. al. n. v i n C h since the mechanism appearance so suddenly and so unexpectedly of war is never engchi U. separable from the human society like lave flooding beneath the earth is always at hand to devour the city with its infernal heat. The play begins in a “very expensive hotel room in Leeds－the kind is so expensive it could be anywhere in the world” (3). The high price of the room implies that not everybody can afford it. This expensiveness, however, does not result in its uniqueness, and everyone everywhere can try to pay for it. So why would anyone like 26. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(39) to pay the high price for the space existing everywhere? It is because a space belonging to oneself is the place where one’s human rights are affirmed. In my space, I can claim that my human rights are under the protection of law, and no one should easily trespass without my permission. But at the same time, I know that everyone has the same rights to have a room as mine because everyone is under the government of State, and the room as the protection of law is provided for each individual. So one. 政治大. would be willing to pay more for one’s own space as its high price seems to imply. 立. that the wall of law protecting one’s rights is built higher and stronger. It seems that. ‧ 國. 學. higher price I pay, more precious my life is.. ‧. Ian comes in, throws a small pile of newspapers on the bed, goes. Nat. io. sit. y. straight to the mini-bar and pours himself a large gin.. n. al. er. He looks briefly out of the window at the street, then turns back to the room.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Ian I’ve shat in better places than this. .................... Cate comes further into the room. She puts her bag down and bounces on the bed. She goes around the room, looking in every drawer, touching everything. 27. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(40) She smells the flowers and smiles. Cate Lovely. (3-4). Ian, a middle-aged Welsh man, is a journalist ostensibly. But the gun always carried by him indicates that his identity is not as what he claims to be. It may be why he wants to pay the high price in exchange for the high-leveled security. Cate is a young woman around twenty, jobless, living with her mother. Ian invites Cate to spend a. 政治大. night with him. Ian enters the room in the way that the value of his life is higher than. 立. everything and even everyone in the room, and everything and everyone exist in the. ‧ 國. 學. space he pays for only to emphasize how precious his life is. On the other hand, the. ‧. way Cate enters the room shows her unfamiliarity with the room, but she still enjoys. Nat. io. sit. y. herself well in the room as she believes the wall of room would also protect her well.. er. Ian “looks briefly out of the window” as he cannot stop worrying that he might not be. al. n. v i n protected well enough. Cate “smellsC thehflowers and smiles,” e n g c h i U through which one feels the joy resulting from peace. The joy of Cate withers soon. Cate accepts Ian’s invitation because Ian sounds “unhappy,” and she is “worried” about him (4). Cate’s worry and Ian’s invitation suggest that they used to be a couple. The lost relationship brings them together, but it is not a touching reunion at all. Ian’s days are numbered because of the lung disease, which makes him act cruelly without compunction, and speak sarcastically without 28. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(41) being concerned about any harms. Cate You’re horrible. Ian Cate, love, I’m trying to look after you. Stop you getting hurt. Cate You hurt me. Ian No, I love you. Cate Stopped loving me. (17). 政治大. The way he loves Cate is to force Cate to love him. He constantly tries to have sex. 立. with Cate, but Cate always rejects his request, saying, “I’m not your girlfriend any. ‧ 國. 學. more” (15). Still, he kisses her by force several times (12, 14, 17, 22), and forces her. ‧. to do the hand-job for him (15). “Make me happy.” says Ian (23) in the way like he is. Nat. io. sit. y. talking to a subordinate being. Cate is raped by Ian at that night. Though the rape is. er. not shown on stage, the fact is clearly exhibited through their quarrels occurring next. al. n. v i n C hand points it at him.UBut she starts trembling and morning. Cate takes Ian’s gun, engchi. faints. When she wakes up, she says she wants to go home. Ian locks the door and says, “It’s too dangerous” (28). He confesses to Cate, “I / AM / A / Killer” (30). He is hired by the State, and the job asks him to sign “the Official Secrets Act” to promise to keep everything in secret. That is why he always carries a gun since he is afraid that someone like him would kill him (29). So the wall of the protection is always too thin for Ian since no one knows the fact better than him that for living humanly, human 29. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(42) rights can be offended. Cate I used to love you. Ian What’s changed? Cate You. Ian No. Now you see me. That all. Cate You’re a nightmare. (33). 政治大. It is not Ian becoming a nightmare, but he is always a nightmare because his existence. 立. reveals how far the State would go in order to preserve its absolute power. “It’s my. ‧ 國. 學. job. I love this country.” says Ian (32). Being the subject uniting the State, Ian. ‧. believes sometimes it is essential for the State to ignore the law in order to achieve the. Nat. io. sit. y. righteousness beyond the law. But when the State can present itself as a totality in the. er. name of people, the individual can never compare himself to the State for being. al. n. v i n merely the governed object of State.CSoheven when the righteousness beyond the law engchi U is claimed to be applied for the people, it can never be the righteousness of the individual. The righteousness Ian believes, therefore, is always a stranger to him, and that is why Ian is always afraid of his being killed. The door of room is knocked four times in the play. At the first time, Ian “takes his gun from the holster and goes to the door,” he asks Cate to open the door, and there is only “a tray of sandwiches on the floor” (6). At the second and the third 30. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(43) time, he asks the waiter to leave the things he orders on the floor (17, 34). The curious thing is that, at the first three times, when the door is opened, nobody stands behind the door. But it turns all different when the door is knocked again. Before Cate goes into the bathroom, she looks out of the window, “Look like there’s a war on.” says she casually as seeing a bird flying across the sky (33). When Ian stays alone, the door is knocked at its fourth time. Ian “draws the gun, goes to the door and listens,” then he. 政治大. decides to open the door, and the ignored war shows itself in flesh. “Outside is a. 立. Soldier with a sniper’s rifle,” and he “takes Ian’s gun easily” (36). A war suddenly. ‧ 國. 學. and quietly breaks out. Even Ian who works for the State does not expect it to happen.. ‧. The space symbolizing the protection of law is easily ruined. No matter how much. Nat. io. sit. y. one pays for it, it would be thrown into chaos whenever it needs to be.. er. The unveiled war forces the nakedness of human life to appear. In the fire of. al. n. v i n war, the audience would seeC how extreme the StateUcan go because, as Jean Luc he ngchi. Nancy argues, “[w]ar is the monument, the festival, the somber and pure sign of the community in its sovereignty” (120). The soldier asks Ian to show his passport (37). The request seems to suggest that the soldier would act in the law. But when he knows there is a woman in the bathroom, he shows his strong interest in raping her. He asks Ian, “What’s she like?” and “Is she soft?” (38). The soldier breaks the door after Cate runs away through the window. Seeing nobody there, the soldier says, “Gone. Taking 31. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(44) a risk. Lots of bastard soldiers out there” (38). It is impossible for anyone to run away from the nightmare, from the original exclusion embodied in the human society. The scene ends by the destruction of the room. “There is a blinding light, then a huge explosion” (39). Even when one is inside the wall, the mechanism of war leaves no one alone. “The hotel has been blasted by a mortar bomb / . . . and everything is covered. 政治大. in dust which is still falling” (39). In embers, Ian and the soldier both lose. 立. consciousness for a while. Ian wakes up first, but the soldier “wakes and turns his. ‧ 國. 學. eyes and rifle on Ian with the minimum possible movement” (39), like a. ‧. well-programmed killing machine, always keeping his eyes on Ian.. Nat. n. al. Ian Of sorts.. Ch. engchi. er. io. know what gun is. You a soldier?. sit. y. Soldier Never met an Englishman with a gun before, most of them don’t. i n U. v. Soldier Which side, if you can remember. Ian Don’t know what the sides are here. Don’t know where . . . (He trails off confused, and look at the Soldier.) Think I might be drunk Soldier No. It’s real. (40) 32. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(45) Disastrous war should be blocked out of the human world since there is nothing like war that tramples on human rights so thoroughly. In the human society, war is acceptable only when it appears on the newspaper or in the TV show, and that is, war is acceptable only when it is presented as the absent in front of the people. So when the veiled war is shown in front of Ian, he is unable to recognize it. In the UK, the modern democratic State, a gun cannot be used normally as a fork. Though Ian carries. 政治大. a gun because he knows well that the state of exception works even when the law is. 立. still effective, but he does not expect the state of exception happens at the scale of. ‧ 國. 學. war, at the scale that no one can run away from, and that is, at the scale of reality.. ‧. Soldier . . . I broke a woman’s neck. Stabbed up between her legs, on the. Nat. sit. io. n. er. Ian (Looks sick.). al. Ch. y. fifth stab snapped her spine.. Soldier You couldn’t do that.. engchi. i n U. v. Ian No. Soldier You never killed. (46) Talking about killing, Ian says, “I wouldn’t forget” (43). The soldier replies, “You would.” Ian still believes that human life is sacred as he still believes in the value of his own life. He never thinks that the human exist only to be killed. So he cannot forget his killing, and cannot kill any others as cruelly as the soldier does. The 33. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(46) soldier’s extreme cruelty, however, tells the story that human beings can be always killed in spite of human dignity because the State, by being able to suspend the law for its own preservation, is itself “a killing machine” (State of Exception 86). So one’s loss of life is forgettable as breakfast bacon eaten yesterday morning. Knowing Ian works as a journalist, the soldier asks Ian to send his story out, to let others know that his lover is cruelly slaughtered during war. “Proving it happened.. 政治大. I’m here, got no choice. But you. You should be telling people” (47). Ian rejects his. 立. request, telling him, “This isn’t a story anyone wants to know” (48) because it is not. ‧ 國. 學. “personal,” and it supplies no “joy” at all. Like disaster is never regarded personal,. ‧. under the regulation of law, the state of exception and war are related with everyday. Nat. io. sit. y. life by being considered unrelated to it, so peace is peaceful and human life is. er. inviolable. In “Reviewing the Fabric of Blasted,” Elaine Aston argues, “Kane’s. al. n. v i n image-infused writing aims to makeC ushsee and to feel theU e n g c h i affects of violence not as a world outside of ourselves, othered and neutralized, but as inside our lives, value systems, choices and behaviours” (19). The violence happens later in the story would be too extreme for one to ignore. And seeing characters, who are as human as everyone else, being treated in the most inhuman way, one would be provoked to ask if human life itself is a container welcoming all the cruelty to inhabit in it. “Going to fuck you.” says the soldier (49). The soldier rapes Ian, and, at the 34. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(47) same time, the “Soldier is crying his heart out.” After the sex and breakdown, the soldier asks Ian, “Sure you haven’t got any food, I’m fucking starving” (50). Then, he holds Ian head, and “puts his mouth over one of Ian’s eyes, sucks it out, bites it off and eats it. / He does the same to the other eye.” And the soldier breaks down again, saying “He ate her eyes. / Poor bastard. Poor love. Poor fucking bastard.” One would never be sure if his lover is also raped, and if her eyes are also eaten because later he. 政治大. blows his head off with his rifle. It seems that the only mercy one being homo sacer. 立. can perceive is death as Agamben declares, “The very body of homo sacer is . . . a. ‧ 國. 學. living pledge to his subjection to a power of death” (Homo Sacer 99). Coming back. ‧. and seeing the dead soldier and Ian lying aside, Cate curses again, “You’re a. Nat. io. sit. y. nightmare” (51). She carries a crying infant given by a stranger from the war zone.. er. She witnesses the city is “taken over,” and the people lose their hope. Ian welcomes. al. n. v i n Cate excitedly, saying, “YouC come Catie? Punish me or rescue me makes no h efornme, gchi U difference I love you Cate . . . touch me Cate” (51). In his extreme insecurity resulting from his blindness, Ian wants to know if Cate is really beside him, so she can help him by punishing him. He wants Cate to help him to end his life. “Be dead soon anyway, Cate. / And it hurts. / Help me to－ / Help me－ / Finish / It.” begs Ian (53), and he asks Cate to find his gun. Instead of finding Ian’s gun, Cate “takes the revolver from the Soldier,” and takes out all the bullets from it (54). Holding the rifle, Cate 35. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(48) still refuses to give Ian the weapon for she thinks it is immoral to commit suicide. Ian shouts angrily, “No God. No Father Christmas. No fairies. No Narnia. No fucking nothing” (55), and accuses Cate, “I know you want to punish me, trying to make me live.” Cate denies the accusation. She gives Ian the unloaded rifle after knowing she is unable to persuade him. “He pulls the trigger. The gun clicks, empty” (56). Cate says it is God stopping him to kill himself, and Ian calls God the “cunt” (57). Cate looks. 政治大. down at the baby, and says “It’s dead” (57). So even the symbol of hope fades away.. 立. Cate buries the dead infant, “binds the wood together in a cross which she sticks. ‧ 國. 學. into the floor” (57), and she prays for the baby for she believes the baby dies. ‧. innocently (58). During the praying, Ian asks Cate, “Can’t you forgive me?” (58). But. Nat. io. sit. y. his question is left unanswered, and Cate decides to leave Ian to find some food. er. outside. Left alone within ruin, Ian cannot maintain himself anymore. He masturbates,. al. n. v i n strangles himself, shits on the floor,C laughs h einsanely, i Uwith bad dream, cries n g c hsleeps. while holding the soldier’s body, and finally he lies “very still, weak with hunger” (59-60). He pulls out the hand-made cross, digs out the infant’s corpse, eats it and puts his whole body into the tomb hole with only his head shown (60). “He dies with relief.” Rain comes down on dead Ian, and then this dead man resurrects and curses, “Shit.” Cate comes back from the war zone with some food and drink, and there “is blood seeping from between her legs.” She sees Ian bury himself in the hole, and get 36. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(49) wet. She calls him, “Stupid bastard,” and sits beside him. She shares what she gets with Ian, and they eat and drink together. “She finishes feeding Ian and sits apart from him, huddle for warmth” (61). In the silence with rain, Ian ends the play by saying, “Thank you.” The characters seem to reach some kind of reconciliation when the smell of death is still thick. That most paradoxical, most fleeting hope finally emerges from the. 政治大. semblance of reconciliation, just as, at twilight, as the sun is. 立. extinguished, rises the evening star which outlasts the night. Its glimmer,. ‧ 國. 學. of course, is imparted by Venus. And upon the slightest such glimmer all. ‧. hope rests; even the richest hope comes only from it. (“Goethe’s Elective. Nat. io. sit. y. Affinities,” Benjamin 355). er. In Goethe’s Elective Affinities, the distance between the lovers is never shortened for. al. n. v i n C when them to achieve reconciliation alive because of the restriction of law. h e ntheyg are chi U But when they are dead, they finally can wait “side by side” for the “happy moment . . . when one day they awaken again together” (Elective Affinity, Goethe. 300). The “richest hope” shines, therefore, only when the light of life withers. Strictly speaking, Cate and Ian never achieve reconciliation between each other as Ian is never forgiven. When Ian asks for Cate’s help to end his suffering, she does not show her mercy but unloads the rifle, and lies to him that God does not want him to die. She 37. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(50) keeps silent as Ian asks for her forgiveness. And she decides to leave Ian while her companionship for Ian is so vital. Even when Cate comes back and feeds Ian, no emotional intimacy can be found in their interactions. In the end, Cate sits aside from Ian to keep her own warmth. It is not the reconciliation between the perpetrator and victim brings up the hope since forgiveness is never given, and their distance is never shortened. However, when forgiveness is not shown in the end, revenge is not seen as. 政治大. well. When the fact that human beings can only live as homo sacer becomes crystal. 立. clear, how can human rights be still considered sacred and inviolable? Cate and Ian. ‧ 國. 學. both know it well, so one does not forgive nor revenge, and the other does not ask for. ‧. forgiveness again. Going through all the sufferings, and soaked in the cold rain. Nat. io. sit. y. together, they are forced to acknowledge the fragility of peace by their own bodies.. er. Then, when they can all cry as Christ, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” (Matthew 27:46). al. n. v i n for experiencing the forsakenness ofCthe know what should be hoped. Living hlaw, e nthey gchi U as the living dead, Ian and Cate achieve “the semblance of reconciliation” for they both perceive what should be waited for. Besides the consensus between Ian and Cate, the “semblance of reconciliation” can also be explained in the other way because it can also refer to an unusual kind of reconciliation happening between the suffering human life and the hoped different life as in Goethe’s story, the life promised in God’s Kingdom awaits the dead. When Ian’s 38. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(51) life is used to reveal the nakedness of human life as he is alive, by his resurrection, the possibility of different life is shown. Though what Ian does when he is alive all look profane, these profanations he commits against the law make his being forsaken by the law undeniable because as the law does not stop him from being profane, it does not save him from all the outlaw violence as well. Ian rapes Cate, curses God, desires to commit suicide, acts as a crazy man and commits cannibalism in the end, but on the. 政治大. other hand, Ian is also raped, tortured, and even has his eyes eaten for the appearance. 立. of war. Though there are no strong grounds to argue that Ian, just like Christ, acts. ‧ 國. 學. without caring his own rights, it is undeniable that Ian’s whole being is christlike. ‧. insofar as it is exposed to the threat of the power which is sustained not by its full. Nat. io. sit. y. enforcement, but by its own suspension. The hope of redemption, therefore, must be. er. shown in front of him as well. Ian’s resurrection is designed by Kane as the reminder. al. n. v i n of something deserving to beCwaited argues that “if Christ be not raised, your h e nfor.gPaul chi U faith is vain” (1 Corinthians 15:17), and Ian’s afterlife is also the first note delivering the melody of the life realized in the Kingdom of inoperativity since his afterlife is accompanied with the silence in which his gratitude can be clearly heard and perceived without being diluted by the violence carried out by the State power and the suspension of law. When the sovereign power works inpoeratively, it would not point the knife 39. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.

(52) named as the righteousness beyond the law at each individual, so the individual would not always under the threat to be killed by the knife, or be forced to take the knife to kill. When the law is rendered inoperative, though the law would not take care of the people by defining their human rights as before, it would not include the people by excluding them from its protection as well. In this case, the law becomes more human than before. At the last moment of the play, when Ian and Cate sit together, when the. 政治大. law and sovereign power seem to bother them no more, Kane ends the play with Ian’s. 立. simple gratitude as this simplicity is the answer, is what is always waited for. Ian’s. ‧ 國. 學. simple gratitude presents an obvious turn of Ian’s attitude. It shows how he changes. ‧. himself from a man grasping his rights of life tightly but choosing to ignore others’. Nat. io. sit. y. human rights into a person treating others without sophisticated calculation but with. er. simplicity that presents what he really feels. And this simplicity is achieved by being. al. n. v i n detached from the sovereign power C andhlaw, and by beingU e n g c h i unrelated to humanity. asking the people to revenge or to forgive for the belief in justice. When the law and sovereign power work inoperatively, and when human rights are not being bestowed just for their suspension, the Kingdom quietly arrives between these most exiled beings.. 40. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.ENG.004.2018.A09.