Theatricality as Medium

Chapter 7. "Ibi et ubique": The Incontinent Plot ('Hamlet')

7 ‘‘Ibi et ubique’’: The Incontinent Plot (‘Hamlet’) Sworn to Secrecy W a l t e r B e n j a m i n ’ s discussion of the way the German baroque mourning play seeks to ‘‘reanimate’’ theatrically a world whose faith in the narrative of Christian redemption has been badly shaken reminds us of how central the question of life and death have always been to the theatrical medium—and to its repression. That medium has always assumed an equivocal position with respect to life and the living. On the one hand, it has claimed a certain superiority over other mimetic forms of representation precisely insofar as it involves living persons—living ‘‘means,’’ as Benjamin called it. On the other, the very mimetic function of the stage undercuts the claim to reproduce and perhaps redeem the living, a claim that in recent years has been adopted by television (‘‘live programming’’). But in the new media, no less than in the old, this emphasis on life only serves to underscore the ghostly nature of the screen as well as the stage: what it brings to life is not simply resurrected, but also embalmed. It is not the least merit of the writings of Jacques Derrida to have explored, in the most varied configurations, the complicity of spectrality with theatricality. Nowhere is this motif more pronounced than in Specters of Marx. Readers of this text will doubtless remember the insistent and recurrent references to Hamlet as an exemplary instance of the singular relation of ‘‘spectrality’’ to theatricality. Derrida emphasizes repeatedly that spectrality distinguishes itself from spirituality by being inextricably linked to visibility, physicality, and localizability. Such traits distinguish the materiality of ghosts from the ideality of spirits in the sense of the Hegelian, philosophical Geist. In a word, according to Derrida, what distinguishes the ghost from the Geist, the specter from the spirit, not just in Hamlet but generally, PAGE 181 181 ................. 11043$ $CH7 11-04-04 08:11:51 PS T h e I n c o n t i n e n t P l o t (H a m l e t ) is its relation to the phenomenal world. A ghost is obliged to appear, which means to appear somewhere, in a particular place. A ghost, in short, must take place. But it takes place in a way that differentiates it both from ideal spirits and from material beings. It is tied to a particular locale, and yet not to any single one. In short, a ghost, as distinct from a Geist, haunts. What it haunts is, first and foremost, places: houses, of course, but other kinds of places as well. Although the etymology of haunt is uncertain, it seems related to the idea of habit and thus to the notions of recurrence and repetition. To haunt and to have a haunt is to be compelled to return to the same place again and again, whether one wants to or not. Such involuntary recurrence also links spectral haunting to the uncanny: the haunted place is both familiar and yet, in its familiarity, irreducibly strange. Both ghost and haunt are possessed, without there being an identifiable possessor. But if a ghost is compelled to appear and to return to the same place, that is also because it requires a particular audience. The audience is never entirely arbitrary, but rather stands in a significant relationship to the ghost, even if it is unaware of that relationship. For all of these reasons the haunts of ghosts inevitably have a theatrical quality . Nowhere is this quality more in evidence than in Act I of Hamlet. • • • Already in their initial encounter with the ghost, before Hamlet has yet appeared on the scene, Marcellus and Horatio react in a significant and symptomatic fashion: they seek to call it to account, engage it in dialogue, and, above all, to bring it to a standstill: Horatio. . . . Stay, and speak. Stop it, Marcellus. Marcellus. Shall I strike at it with my partisan? Horatio. Do, if it will not stand. Bernardo. ’Tis here. Horatio. ’Tis here. Marcellus. ’Tis gone. (1.1.139–44) The ghost appears, but it is difficult to pin down, since, as Horatio anticipates, ‘‘it will not stand.’’ PAGE 182 182 ................. 11043$ $CH7 11-04-04 08:11:51 PS ‘ ‘ I b i e t u b i q u e ’ ’ This ‘‘instability’’ of the ghost returns later in the first act...