Theatre and the Retrieval of the Pregnant Goddess as a Paradigm of What is Human or Ultimate Interculturalism

Theatre and the Retrieval of the Pregnant Goddess as a Paradigm of What is Human or Ultimate Interculturalism Bruce Wilshire andDonna Wilshire There are indeed pan-human systems of aesthetic creation, biogenetically imprinted upon us, whose basic rules we violate only at the risk of artistic sterility. They include . . . certain fundamental mythical stories, . . basic rhythms and phases of performance and ritual.... Frederick Turner, "The Crisis in Modern Aesthetics" IN HIS PROVOCATIVE essay "The Crisis in Modem Aesthetics," published in the recent Performing Arts Journal 32, Frederick Turner urges us to look with care at the revolutionary movement we call modernism , for he senses that in this revolt we have discarded basic human ''systems" and "imprints" while trying to throw out the dirty bath water of sterile tradition inherited from our fathers. He offers a pointed, brilliant description of modernism as "oedipal . . . adolescent rebellion" that "to assert its existence . . . must eliminate its fathers." Modernism has therefore been, he says, exceedingly "confrontational," "destructive," so "suicidal" and "masculine" that "nurture was stifling" to it, so immature that it has wasted and self-destructively exploited its own energies as well as other natural resources with no concern for the "renewable" or for 22 ''recycling," no value placed on regeneration or the cyclical. The attraction to modernism has been so formidable, he writes, that it has negatively impacted all contemporary culture and values, but the damage to art and art-making is the issue he addresses directly. As will we. To remedy "The Crisis in Aesthetics" he lays out the theoretical groundwork for an artistic renaissance that would refresh and renew our creative well-springs and help bring about a more "mature and powerful art that deals with the central and enduring concerns of humankind, transcending the enthusiasms, rages, and anxieties" of modernism's destructive "uncreative . . . rebellious . . . adolescence." We join Turner in seeking an artistic renaissance and agree with him that the first step in doing that is to look back through the history of artistic expression in order to recover our fundamental creative sources from older cultures. We agree wholeheartedly that we must assess where we are in relation to our "progenitors " so that we can better understand and use our innate pan-human systems of aesthetic creation. We agree with Turner that it is time for "artists to . .. return to that gentle, nourishing,enhancingvision of art which relies on renewable resources." (Emphasis ours.) He deplores "the adolescent/modernist resentment of traditional convention " and their rejection of the "superstructure of inherited values," and prescribes that artists should return boldly to "the full-blooded mainstream of the classical genres." Here we disagree. A return to classical genres will not rid artists or anyone of their iconoclastic tendencies, for it is undeniable that we have inherited the pattern of unseating-our-father-by-overthrow from the classical tradition itself. Classical values champion the dualistic, hierarchical system that encourages the fathers to aspire to dominate and sons to aspire to throw out the tyrants. Such authoritativeness always breeds resentment and rejection in both generations; such contentiousness is systemic to our conventional traditions back to and including the classical. What we need to return to are the fundamental, pan-human mythical stories, basic cyclical, self-regeneratingrhythms, phases, and processes of primal peoples. The classical dualistic, linear way of looking at the world sees all life as if it manifested naturally in oppositional polarities-male/female, citizen/foreigner, master/slave, etc.' That contentious, exclusionary style was modeled for our classical ancestors by their gods and heroes who showed little inclination to give caring relationships high priority, although earlier Mother Goddess-revering cultures had been quite different-as primal holistic peoples the world over still tend to be. Our classical fathers only faintly praised "the primary family" and "values of nurturing and husbandry" that we and Turner admire. When engaged in important or in23 teresting activities, classical Greek men separated themselves from their women and children (and foreigners). Our Judaic legacy also models hierarchies and divisiveness among cultures, for Yahweh separated the earth's peoples into "My people" and "Mine enemies." The primary dualism in the linear mode that has permeated Western civilization at least since classical times and that...