As a means of illustrating his conception of lordship and
bondage within a single consciousness, Hegel presents phenomenologists with a
fictitious story of an encounter between two people. He does so, presumably, to engender understanding
of what might otherwise be an incomprehensibly abstract internal process. In his narrative, Hegel writes that a self-consciousness
does not exist without the recognition of a separate self-consciousness. Upon the recognition of an external
self-consciousness, both self-consciousnesses are distraught and threatened at
the existence of an alien self and seek to assert dominance over the foreign self. Resultantly, a fight to the death manifests
between the two self-consciousnesses, as both sides seem entirely willing to sacrifice
their respective existences. The
attempted destruction of the mutually recognized external self results not in obliteration,
but in domination, as one of the consciousnesses concludes that annihilation of
the self is not an appropriate sacrifice for recognition. As such, the conceding consciousness is
subordinated to role of slave while the triumphant consciousness reigns
masterfully over the former. Both selves
are thereby preserved by their respective roles of master and slave. We find out, however, that these roles are
not sedentary, as the lord becomes enslaved by the production of his lesser.
Despite
Hegel’s insistence that this anecdote represent a process which happens within
consciousness itself, the narrative may be similarly applied to real-world
conflicts. Although there are plenty of
obvious historical examples (such as the eighteenth century French Revolution,
colonization and subsequently declared independence in the United States, and the
People’s Crusade during the eleventh century), it seems as though the dialectic
of lordship and bondage could be applied to artistic and literary movements and
developments as well. Such examples may
include the manifestation of the Romantic era during the eighteenth
century. Romanticist art and literature
emerged in aggressive response to the Age of Enlightenment, during which
rationalization, science, and objectivity prevailed. Romanticist art (particularly romantic-era
literature written by such authors as Lord Byron, William Blake, and John Keats)
championed the value of emotion and aesthetic experience over previously
popular Enlightenment ideals. To this
extent, it might be said that both the Romanticist and Enlightenment periods represent two separate, yet equally
valid modes of thought or consciousness which vied for dominance in a manner
similar to that described by Hegel in the master-slave dialectic. Are there any other artistic movements which
can be analyzed particularly well through a Hegelian lens?
Postcoloniality may pose as a very interesting example of the Slave's rebellion against the Master. The similarities are startling. Colonisation saw the domination of populations upon populations of people. The subugators, the Eurocentric Masters, refused to recognise the subjugated as human, for this allowed them to 'put to work' these Slaves one the world, that is, exploit them. Race was invented, and racism encouraged and emphasised, for this exonerated the Masters of any guilt (since these Slaves were dehumanised and constructed as inferior). The Slaves, on the other hand, underwent a cruel procedure outlined eloquently by Fanon; they were forced to see themselves through white men's eyes, and thus even began to see themselves as inferior. The white man was impressed upon them as close to divine.
ReplyDeleteThis process is outlined in innumerable postcolonial novels (God of Small Things, Desertion, Bend in the River). This is in itself a triumph, for the 'Slaves' of colonialism are writing back. That is, they have assimilated the language of the colonisers and are now using it as ammunition to fight back against their oppressors.
Would fighting back be possible in Hegel's Master-Slave Dialectic of Self-consciousness?
I think that in the narrative, that both self-consciousnesses, with life staring them in the face, should have both reached the same conclusion. Besides that, one thing that I can relate this with is South-Africa and the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela.
ReplyDeleteAdam I'm not sure that this is exactly what you were getting at, but I think we could see some of what you are saying in the modern art world. My thinking here come entirely from the documentary "!Women Art Revolution" that was played a few weeks ago on campus. It was interesting in that film to see the ways in which gender dynamics in general society played a fairly significant role in dictating the artistic trends of the late 20th century. For instance, because the male dominated world of art was focused on structuralism, the women of the art revolution were working to defy exactly that. However, I don’t know if we could necessarily equate the “fighting back” of the slave or Kharys’ postcoloniality example and the outcomes for women after this art revolution. Obviously there were many more things happening in terms of gender equality in the world than simply in relation to art, and the effects of this are seen in the fact that, despite working through the art revolution and proving many things about their abilities as creative thinkers and artists, women were still being left out of galleries and still being denied jobs they were qualified for.
ReplyDelete