A Model for Reading Comedy Using Hegel’s Concept of SelfConsciousness
Nazım SarıkayaThis study develops a dramaturgical model for reading comedy texts based on the concept of self-consciousness. After explaining the acceptance of consciousness as expressed in Hegel’s (1807) Phenomenology of Spirit, the subject is then shown to also an object by adapting it to character production. Reading Aristophanes’ (422 BC) The Wasps and Menander’s (316 BC) Dyskolos [The Grouch] involves arriving at the knowledge of the body and the object through the characters in the first step, at sociality and the subject’s self-knowledge in the second step, and at self-consciousness and the subject-object identity in the third step. The study developed the self-consciousness approach with the aim of establishing a dialectical relationship among the author, the reader, and the text. One can rise to a higher level of consciousness through the awareness of the self-forms that are represented in the texts through the “other”.
Hegel’in Kendilik Bilinci Kavramıyla Komediye Yönelik Okuma Modeli
Nazım SarıkayaHegel’in yaklaşımıyla kendilik bilinci, insanın bedensel ve toplumsal bir bilinç varlığı olduğuna dair öz farkındalık biçiminde ifade edilebilir. Hegel’e göre insan, kendilik bilincini yükseltebilmek ve nesnel olan öznelliğine ulaşabilmek için sanat, din, siyaset gibi alanlar üzerinden kendisini açığa çıkarmaktadır. Bu çalışmada ise ‘kendilik bilinci’ kavramından yola çıkarak komedi metinleri özelinde bir dramaturjik model geliştirilmektedir. Tinin Fenomenoloji’sinde ifade edilen bilinç kabulü açıklandıktan sonra karakter üretimine uyarlanarak öznenin aynı zamanda nesne olduğu gösterilmektedir. Aristophanes’in Eşekarıları ve Menandros’un Huysuz Adam’ına yönelik okumanın ilk adımında karakterler üzerinden bedensellik ve nesnenin bilgisine, ikinci adımında toplumsallık ve öznenin kendini bilmesine, üçüncü adımda ise kendilik bilinciyle özne nesne özdeşliğine ulaşılmaktadır. Çalışmada geliştirilen kendilik bilinci yaklaşımıyla yazar, okur, metin arasında diyalektik bir ilişki kurulması amaçlanmaktadır. Metinlerde temsil edilen kendilik biçimlerinin “başkası dolayımıyla” farkına varılmasıyla birlikte daha yüksek bir bilinç düzeyine yükselebilmek mümkündür. Komedi karakteriyle birlikte kendi varlığına da gülebilen okur ve yazar, öznenesne özdeşliğinde bir araya gelmektedir.
The concept of self-consciousness Hegel developed in his The Phenomenology of Spirit describes humans as having a consciousness endowed by naturel with a biological presence and a position within the social structure. Humans must develop an awareness of both the natural consciousness formed by object knowledge and the self-consciousness formed by knowledge of one’s own subjectivity. A person who is aware of one’s physical and social existence as well as of the fundamental desires that allow one to sustain one’s life can express this through art. The reason humans are so involved in reflective relationships is because one recognizes that truth is already quite substantial. Specifically, comedy can be read in conjunction with selfawareness, because the human being objects to their own existence. Through Hegel’s notion of self-consciousness, this work aims to develop a dramatic approach to reading comedy. The Old Comedy as a phase of Spirit’s philosophical system and the acting performance in these plays influenced Hegel’s explanation of comedy. This study, however, attempts to develop an approach to reading comedy texts and has chosen two plays, one from Old and one from New Comedy, because the author-text-reader relationship is believed to guarantee the object’s identity. In the same way that Hegel expressed how comedians laugh at their own existence with the audience, the reader’s response to the text’s assertion that truth is quite substantial as it is may elicit amusement. People who laugh as a result of realizing their objective subjectivity through comedy will bond over the basis of interdependence. By developing a self-awareness approach through dramaturgy, the study aims to enable the writer and reader to recognize that, in addition to being characters, they are also objects. Also, reproducing objective subjects through text will produce a cyclical system with greater self-awareness. By analyzing Aristophanes’ (422 BC) The Wasps and Menander’s (316 BC) Dyskolos [The Grouch], this article attempts to show how people reflect themselves in the texts. The projection of moments Hegel used while explaining consciousness and self-consciousness is evaluated in the context of character production by adapting it to the plays. The dramaturgical reading model this study develops has been shaped by adapting the theory of consciousness as explained in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit to comedy. The achievement of this reading is that the writer and the reader can become aware of their own objective subjectivities through the text. Through an examination of the chosen plays, the article attempts to demonstrate how people reflect themselves in literary works. This research evaluates the projection of the moments Hegel uses to explain consciousness and self-consciousness in the context of character production by adapting it to plays. This work develops a dramatic interpretation of comedic texts using Hegel’s concept of self-consciousness and attempts to demonstrate how the subject is also an object by adapting the conception of consciousness in Hegel’s The Phenomenology of Spirit to the construction of character. This article reads the two plays in three stages: The first entails learning about the body and object through the characters, the second is about one’s sociality and substance, and the third is about one’s identity as both substance and object. Humans attain a higher level of consciousness as a result of the comedy revealing the self through the other as represented in the texts. People who are able to share a chuckle with their character in the text also coalesce in the self-object identity transition.
