ABSTRACT

This article seeks to re-address the problem of Cordelia – not as a vessel of male prejudice, fantasy or repression but as an image of truth and the social life of that truth as it moves across the play world. Focusing on King Lear, I will examine the complex value of silence, not as negation or nothing, but as an ethical value through which the play explores the contested space of the unsayable. Considering Lear’s investment in power, monstrosity and self-knowledge, I investigate the story of Apollo’s crow, Aesop and Ovid, and what happened to the bird who told the truth and became ‘the opposite of white’. Re-imagining the unspeakable, as well as the unknowable, this essay argues that King Lear rehabilitates the power of nothing through a sceptical analysis of the value of acceptance and restraint, unhinged from their stoic or Christian contexts.

摘要

这篇文章试图重新解决 Cordelia 的问题——不是作为男性偏见、幻想或压抑的容器，而是作为真相的形象以及真相在游戏世界中移动时的社会生活。以李尔王为中心，我将考察沉默的复杂价值，它不是作为否定或无，而是作为一种伦理价值，通过它探索不可言说的有争议的空间。考虑到李尔在权力、怪物和自知上的投入，我调查了阿波罗的乌鸦、伊索和奥维德的故事，以及说实话并成为“白色的反面”的鸟的下落。重新想象不可言说的和不可知的事物，这篇文章认为李尔王通过对接受和克制的价值的怀疑分析恢复了虚无的力量，脱离了他们的坚忍或基督教背景。