In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

64Rocky Mountain Review Jewish existence into images ofthe existential dilemmas ofmankind as such" (53). Unlike Kafka and Scholem, Benjamin's encounter with Hebrew remained a dream: rather than Muttersprache or Ursprache, he chose French, "la langue de la civilisation européenne" (45). In the third essay, "The Power ofthe Text," Alter explores the relationship between reader and text: how a copied text has the power to reveal to the reader new aspects ofhis inner self, how the reader/copier must submit to the authority of the text. For a text to become canonical, it must be open to infinite interpretation. Indeed, it is in the discussion of interpretability that Alter offers his deepest insights into Kafka's mode ofnarration. Kafka, according to Alter, combines narrative invention with exegesis, "making the fiction a constant contemplation of its own perplexing meanings, with the perplexed protagonist repeatedly seen in the absurdity of his efforts of contemplation" (76). As illustration, Alter cites the first sentence of TAe Trial. Alter's discussion culminates in the fourth essay, "Revelation and Memory," an interpretation ofthe angel motifas used by these three writers: in Scholem's quatrain "Gruß vom Ángelus," in Benjamin's meditation on Klee's Ángelus Novus, and finally in Kafka's diary entry (June 25, 1914) about an apparition of an angel that turns into a wooden galleon figure. For Scholem, the angel in his poem is "ein unsymbolisch Ding," resisting the power of interpretation, oftranslation; Benjamin's angel also is removed from the realm ofrevelation, and Kafka's angel is merely a block of wood, an artifact. For these writers, the conveyers ofdivine messages are unsymbolic, silent, as though indicating that the return to origins is impossible, and where God once stood there is now only Melancholy (119). By comparing and contrasting each writer's use of the angel motif, Alter discovers deep undercurrents of similarities that become the hallmark of modernity: "the figure of the angel could become the vehicle for imagining the paradoxical nothingness of revelation" (119). INGEBORG BAUMGARTNER Albion College SUSAN READ BAKER. Dissonant Harmonies: Drama and Ideology in Five Neglected Plays of Pierre Corneille. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1990. 167 p. In this study ofthe "conflict between drama and ideology" (2) in Corneille's Clitandre (1632), Théodore, vierge et martyre (1646), Pertharite, roi des Lombards (1653), Sophonisbe (1663), and Othon (1665), Susan Read Baker elaborates two notions. The first, personation, "denotes the ways in which the theatrical illusion of a human agent is created" (8). Personated characters obtain psychological depth through the exercise of their virtue. They use a language of "moral authority," the "code des généreux" (11). The second critical notion, impersonation, informs characters who divorce language from moral authority, their primary values being "expediency" (12) and self interest. They are "Machiavellists" who believe in "virtù," not "vertu" (18). Book Reviews65 In Sophonisbe, the title role typifies impersonation. The Carthaginian queen, Sophonisbe, is represented as "bigamous and guileful" (98). She takes all risks and assumes many guises to protect her political dominion. She agrees to return to her first husband, the Roman ally Massinisse, and to abandon her defeated husband, Syphax, since this promises to preserve her independence. Her equivocations end badly, when the Roman envoy declares her to be the wife of Syphax, and thus "part of the booty of conquest" (111). Her impersonation hides a "possessive individualism" (112) and is repressed by Roman law. Sophonisbe's rival, Eryxe, exemplifies personation. She is "characterized by reasonableness" (100). She rejects Sophonisbe's unscrupulous means of escaping subjugation to Rome, believes in "fair play," and is loath "to act against her royal adversaries" (102). In Othon, Baker considers some ambiguities of personation and impersonation. Initially, Othon appears unwavering. He seeks the throne but only to empower his beloved Plautine. She, however, counsels him to pay court to Camille, the emperor's niece: survival depends on it. Just when Othon seems ready to become a personation ofanti-Machiavellism, he provisionally impersonates love for Camille because it serves his interests. The conflict between personation and impersonation results in "indeterminacy" (130). Underpereonation and overpersonation explain flaws in these unsuccessful plays. The eponymous hero of Pertharite is "underpersonated" (77). He...

pdf

Share