McCoy's Life Journey曉風

 

Women in the Patriarchal Discourse: Questions on Femininity,

 

Postcolonial India's Uncertain Condition: Mimicry, Rebellion

The New Colonizer: Haunts of Imperialism and Caste System in The God of Small Things
Ryan Hsieh

Summary on “Critique of Violence” by Walter Benjamin
In this essay, Benjamin shows violence’s relation to law and justice. At first, Benjamin mentions violence, as a principle, could be a moral means even to just ends which determined by the criterion for cases of it use. And then, Benjamin explores dimensions on violence from the natural law and positive law. According to the thesis of natural law, “violence is a product of nature” but for the positive law, “violence is a product of history’’ (237). For Benjamin, “natural law attempts, by the justness of the ends, to ‘justify’ the means, positive law ‘guarantee’ the justness of the ends through the justification of the means’’ (237). Secondly, Benjamin mentions ‘‘the different functions of violence rests on whether it serves natural or legal ends which can be traced against a background of specific legal conditions’’ (238). In Benjamin’s own view, “the individual as legal subject is the tendency to deny the natural ends in a given situation, be usefully pursued by violence’’ (238). Benjamin shows violence deals with in the paradoxical way. For Benjamin, “violence can with reason seems so threatening to the law, and be so feared it, must be especially evident on its application’’ (239). And then, Benjamin provides an instance of its application: about the strike by the labor and shows “the objective contradiction in the legal situation”. In Benjamin’s own view, strike cannot be regarded as violence for two reasons, as follows. Firstly, “the organized labor is the only legal subject entitled to exercise violence’’ (239). In the second place, “the right to strike constitutes in the view of labor, which is opposed to that of the state, the right to use force in attaining certain ends’’ (239). Benjamin shows the contradiction on this situation, the right to strike for labor is right but for the state the right is abuse. Thirdly, Benjamin mentions “the police is a institution of the modern state whose violence for legal ends but with the simultaneous authority to decide these ends itself within wide limits’’ (242). For Benjamin, police violence is law-making and “emancipated from both conditions because its function is the assertion of legal claims for any decree’’ (243). Even Benjamin portrays the power of police is formless, like its all pervasive, ghostly presence in the life of civilized states’’ (243). And then, Benjamin refers all violence may be regarded as a means of law-making or law-preserving and violence implies the problematic nature of law itself. What’s more, Benjamin refers mythic violence to show the problematic light on lawmaking violence through explores the legend of Niobe. For Benjamin, “the action of Apollo and Artemis is a punishment and their violence establishes a law far more than it punishes the infringement of a law that already exists’’ (248). And then, Benjamin reveals that “the function of violence in lawmaking is twofolded, in the sense that lawmaking pursues as its end, with violence as the means’’ and “lawmaking establishes a law not an end unalloyed by violence but one necessarily and intimately bound to it under the title of power’’ (248). Finally, Benjamin concludes that “all mythic, lawmaking violence, which we may call ‘executive’, is pernicious’’ (252).

Reflection on Ursula K. Heise’s Paper “From the Blue Planet to Google Earth”
In this paper, Ursula K. Heise deals with many dimensions on Ursula K. LeGuin’s work “Vaster than Empires”, localism, deterritorialization, cosmopolitanism, eco-cosmopolitanism, and forms of the global. I would like to focus on the idea on deterritorialization in this reflection because I am interested about deterritorialization. According to Heise, “Deterritorialization implies that the average daily life, in the context of globality, is shaped by structures, processes, and products that originate elsewhere” (Heise 54). As Heise portrays, there are many products makes us have the illusion on displacement in modern society. For example, people may buy American jeans to wear, eat Korean pickle, and cut the hairdo like Visual kei whose hairstyles appear on Japanese pop singer in our nation. It shows as if the frontier of the nation is destroyed by modern products. Hence, in Heise’s view, “This displacement is caused by the availability of internationally produced and distributed consumer products, cultural artifacts, and foods, the presence of media such as radio, television, and the Internet” (Heise 52). I would like to conclude this part, through cites Heise’s view, “Deterritorialization is the major cultural impact of global connectivity” (Heise 53). In addition to, I am interested about Heise’s view on identity politics. In Heise’s view, the people who are exiled can be regarded as the power of opposing the hegemony. In my own view, this concept is different from traditional thinking. In traditional society, people always think the group of exile as a group of oppressive who are bullied by the structure of society. But it is totally different. I think it is avant-garde thinking on identity politics.

Reflection on Pheng Cheah’s Paper “What Is a World? On World Literature as World-Making Activity”

In this paper, Pheng Cheah portrays world literature may regard as world-making activity and he cites many ideas from three philosophers, Kant, Goethe, and Marx, and he also mentions the postcolonial literature. But in this response, I would like to refer the two thinker’s ideas on world-making activity and world literature. In Cheah’s view, cosmopolitanism is mainly about imaging people as part of world which may transcend the limited ties of kinship and country to the human beings. After he claim that “World literature is an important aspect of cosmopolitanism because it is a type of world-making activity that enables us to imagine a world”, he cites three thinkers’ ideas on these. (Cheah 26) In Kant’s view, “The way of thinking may regards and conduct as a mere citizen of the world” (Cheah 27) Kant also mentions literature creates the world and cosmopolitan bonds and enhances the humanity. In Goethe’s interpretation, world literature may regard as a negotiation in order to arrive at the universal. Cheah also refers Goethe’s ideas on world literature full of eurocentrism and hierarchical because in Goethe’s view, only Greek literature has the archetypal beauty of humanity. In my won view, I don’t know why Goethe does this, ignores other literature even minority literature. Also I think his idea is not absolutely right about the vision of world literature. How world literature’s view only exists the Greek literature? Does he mean the anthology of world literature only needs to embody Greek literature? It sounds ridiculous to me.

Postcolonial India's Uncertain Condition: Mimicry, Rebellion in The God of Small Things
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is a novel about a tragic and traumatic experience in an Anglophile family in Ayemenem, India. While the British colonizes the India, the Indian elites always get the higher education in England or America. Nowadays India is an independent country, but the postcolonial Indian elite still behave like the colonizer, the British rather than themselves, the Asian Indian. The Indian elites admire, respect, and imitate the British cultures even teach their younger generation to learn the colonizer’s language, English and the British lifestyles. But it is ambivalent. On the one hand, the Indian elites prefer to behave like the British people, but on the other hand they can’t abandon the caste system which is deeply ingrained in the Asian Indian culture. Hence, it leads to a double result; that is the Indian elites not only contempt their family member who doesn’t get the education but also despise the untouchable person and the subaltern people. The postcolonial Indian elite's behavior makes the postcolonial India become an uncertain and hybrid condition. In addition, this book named as The God of Small Things, I would like to articulate “Small Things” as the rebellions are rose by the subaltern people. In this proposed research, I would like to utilize the postcolonial theorist, Homi Bhabha’s theory on mimicry and hybridity to elaborate the postcolonial Indian uncertain condition. I also refer to the rebellions could be regarded as the subaltern people against the postcolonial Indian elites.
At first, I would like to talk about the postcolonial Indian elite’s behaviors on imitating the colonizer, the British. There are three Anglophile characters. They are proud, arrogant, and self-centered. For example, the twins’ uncle, Chacko who has studied in the Oxford, often read aloud. “He didn’t care whether anyone was listening to him or not. And if they were, he didn’t care whether or not they had understood what he was saying” (Roy 54). In my view, it shows that Chacko is confident and proud that he has studied in the Oxford. It also reveals that Chacko intends to force other people to hear what he speaks in a loud voice. The postcolonial Indian elites always behave as the British through watching the English TV programs, wearing the Western costumes, driving the English car, and etc. For example, the twins’ maternal grandaunt, Baby Kochamma watched “The Bold and The Beautiful and Santa Barbara . . . loved their shiny clothes and the smart, bitchy repartee” (Roy 27). The twins’ grandfather, Pappachi also persists in wearing a “well-pressed three-piece suit even in the stifling Ayemenem heat, every single day” (Roy 49). For instances, Chacko unconsciously “Quoted long passages from the books he had read before for no any apparent reason” in any time (Roy 38). It reveals the literary texts which Chacko has read to disturb his real life. Even they insist on teaching their younger generation to learn and speak the colonizer’s language, English. For instance, if the twins, Estha and Rahel meet a new English word, Chacko will request the twins look up the Reader’s Digest Great Encyclopedic Dictionary to learn the meaning of this new English word in their conversation. According to Rajeev. G on his essay “Arundati Rai’s The God of Small Things – A Post-Colonial Reading,” “Such an ardent obsession with the imperial language and codes is typical of post colonial community, where an involuntary subservience to the imperial hordes and an ingrained devotion to their modes and customs typify their psyche” (G 3). In his view, the postcolonial Indian elites cannot help but imitate the colonizer’s culture because India has been a British colony in the past. There is no denying that the colonized people, the Asian Indian are affected by the colonizer, British. As Edward Said states in Bhabha’s essay “Of Mimicry and Man,” “Mimicry represents an ironic compromise” (Bhabha 86). Baby Kochamma establishes a rule to force the twins, Estha and Rahel must speak in English. If Baby Kochamma catches the twins speaking in Malayalam in their private conversation, the twins will write this lines “I will always speak in English, I will always speak in English” in a hundred times (Roy 36). According to Miriam Nandi, the reason on the postcolonial Indian elite Baby Kochamma forces the twins to speak in English is:

Response Paper on Hélène Cixous’s “Sorties”
In her work “Sorties,” Hélène Cixous mentions that we must destroy the connection of logocentrism and phallocentrism because “The general logic of difference would no longer fit into the opposition that still dominates” (97). In the beginning of this essay, Cixous lists many couples of oppositions such as sun versus moon, culture versus nature, and etc. For instances, in Linda Hogan’s People of the Whale, the female protagonist Ruth struggles for protecting the indigenous tradition, the whale, the nature in the whole story. In contrast to Ruth, many male characters struggle for getting a lot of money rather than protecting the nature. And in one of Chinese songs, mother figure is portrayed as a moon. Also in our tradition, female are sensitive and are requested to be obedient to male. In contrast to female, male always dominates the female. After Cixous lists these oppositions, she reveals that “Thought has always worked by dual, hierarchized oppositions” (90). It shows that theory of society, culture support the symbolic system; that is phallocentrism. In this essay, I would like to talk about three issues: female figure in philosophy, interpretations on the femininity, Cixous’s assertion of a new difference.
First, I would like to point out women are passive and obedient in philosophical discourse. In Cixous’s example, if we meet an unfamiliar object, we will ask the question ‘what is it?’ And then, there is a sound; that is the symbolic father respond to us. There is a sound would answer that “It is a book” because the object is named as a book. The whole symbolic system includes language, rule, and etc are created by male. In this case, it reveals that “There’s no place at all for women in the operation” (92). Cixous also uses Mallarmé’s tragic dream to reveal that female doesn’t exist in the philosophy. In Mallarmé’s tragic dream, a father mourns for the death of his son but no mother exists. I wonder whether the mother is dead or not. If the answer is not, why does not the mother exist in his dream? For Cixous, it reveals that “Woman upon whom he no longer depends, he retains only this space, always virginal, matter subjected to the desire that he wishes to imprint” (92). In my own interpretation, it explains why women are requested to be obedient to male in the tradition. It also reveals that female plays a minor role in satisfying the male’s desires to make the symbolic system would operate successfully in the traditional patriarchal society.

Response Paper on Luce Irigaray’s “The Blind Spot of An Old Dream of Symmetry”
Whereas Julia Kristeva not only approves of Freud’s insights but also expresses her perspective on his psychoanalytic theories, Luce Irigaray opposes to Freud’s psychoanalytic theories on the interpretation of femininity, the oedipal phase, the castration, the penis-envy and so on. “The Blind Spot of an Old Dream of Symmetry” is Irigaray’s reinterpretations of Freud’s essays on “Femininity,” etc. It reveals that Freud’s perspectives are unpersuasive and doubtful. Irigaray satirizes that there are blind spots on Freud’s insights because they are only based on patriarchal preference. There are two reasons why Freud regards female as a passive figure. First, female always plays a passive role in the sexual union. Second, female’s sex cell is passive than male’s sex cell in the sexual union. But in Irigaray’s view, Freud’s insights are uncertain because “the male is active only in the single act of sexual union” (17). When female breast-feeds her children, she is more active than male. In this essay, I would like to talk about three issues: the statement of little girl is a little boy in Irigaray’s view, Freud’s theory on the change of love object, and the position of the female and the position of child in Freud’s view.
First, I would like to reveal the reasons why female is inferior to male in Freud’s view and to show Irigaray’s oppositional viewpoint on it. In Irigaray’s work, “The Little Girl Is (Only) a Little Boy, ” she mentions that in Freud’s view, the definition of woman is “A man minus the possibility of (re)presenting oneself as a man” (27). It shows that the little boy becomes the little girl because of losing phallus in the phallic stage. Hence, female must suffer more painful life than male. In Irigaray’s view, it reveals that “The desire for the same, for the self-identical, the self (as) same, and again of the similar . . . to put it in the desire for the homo . . . male, dominates the representational economy” (26). It shows that Freud pursues a fiction－ that the little girl is a little man is just to satisfy the male’s interest, to construct the patriarchal domination. It also ignores the importance of “sexual difference.”According to Irigaray, ‘“Sexual difference’ is a derivation of the problematic of sameness” (26). It shows that Freud’s perspective with a blind spot because the truth is, the male or the female is different individual subject. In my view, Freud’s interpretation on the female reveals that female must tolerate suffering in her life; that is “women have fewer social interests than male” because she doesn’t have a penis (26). But I think it is an excuse to dominate female in the patriarchal society. I think it is very ironical in Freud’s view because Freud said that he uses the method of science to differentiate between the male and female. But why does Freud still emphasize that the little girl has a smaller penis? Why does Freud mention that the little girl’s autoeroticism is like the little boy’s penis masturbation? Does Freud misunderstand the biological science? It shows that Freud’s view on the female: the female is inferior to male is unpersuasive and ambiguous. Freud would rather emphasize the value of phallus than assert the importance of sexual difference.

Response Paper on Julia Kristeva’s “Psychoanalysis- A Counter-depressant”
Unlike traditional feminists who always query, deny, even criticize Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories on the interpretation of the oedipal phase and the position of the mother, Kristeva not only approves Freud’s insights but also expresses her perspective on his psychoanalytic theories. According to Freud, baby will leave his/her mother in the oedipal phase in order to be an individual subject. In my view, it means that people must accept all requests the patriarchal society requires us to do. Hence, patriarchal domination is necessary. For example, in the traditional patriarchal society, women are requested to be obedient to her husband, and women must tolerate even swallow down her anger in order to make her family happiness. It also shows the position of the mother is lower than father. One of Kristeva’s works, Black Sun, is a book about depression and melancholia. In my view, the sun always shines and lights the general truth. But why the sun becomes black here? The shining sun could infer a healthy body but the black one could infer a body suffering from many unhappy and miserable experiences. Hence, in my view, Kristeva may infer melancholia is the black sun. In Chapter one, “Psychoanalysis- A Counter-depressant,” Kristeva deals with the following issues, including depression relating to echolalia experiences, two sides on the depressive persons, the differentiation between the death drive and the depressed mood and death-bearing woman. But I would like to focus on how Kristeva portrays the power of melancholia and how melancholia comes into being at first. In the beginning of this chapter, Kristeva portrays the powerful and destructive power of melancholia as “A lethargic rays reach me, pinning me down to the ground . . . compelling me to silence, to renunciation” (180). Kristeva also reminds us that melancholia results from our traumatic experiences in the past. And people are miserable and long to commit suicide.
In the beginning of this essay, I would like to talk about how Kristeva provides a different interpretation of depression. Psychoanalysis shows that people are depressed because they are unaware while they obsess with their faces and admire them in a mirage. But in Kristeva’s view, depression results from “the loss of that essential other” (182). According to Kristeva, depression relates to echolalia experiences: “The child king becomes irredeemably sad before uttering his first words . . . because he has been irrevocably, desperately separated from the mother, a loss that causes him to try to find her again, along with other objects of love, first in the imagination, then in words” (182). In my own interpretation, children are depressed and despairing because there is no other figure to substitute the mother figure. Kristeva also claiming both melancholia and depression result from the subject’s “impossible mourning for the maternal object” (184).

The New Colonizer: Haunts of Imperialism and Caste System in The God of Small Things
The God of Small Things is written by India’s writer, Arundhati Roy. This is her first novel. Roy writes this novel and wins the Booker Prize. This story is narrated by a grown-up girl, talks about what happen in her childhood. This is a story about a tragic and traumatic experience in an Anglophile family in the postcolonial India. There are three Anglophile characters in this novel. These Anglophile characters behave as the new colonizer in India. They treat people based on Imperialism and Caste System. Even if in this story, India is an independent and modernized country, there are two forces of Imperialism and Caste System manipulates this story. The two forces are like two ghosts haunting them. In this proposed research, I would like to explore how imperialism and the caste system haunt them and reveals how their identification related to Anne Anlin Cheng’s insight: racial melancholia. In this proposed research, it will divide into two sections including the haunting of Imperialism and Caste System and postcolonial India people’s recognition based on racial melancholia.
In the first section of this paper, I would like to explore how imperialism and the caste system are portrayed, reveals the impacts of imperialism and caste system in postcolonial India, and how them haunts.

A’atsika’s Cultural Beliefs in People of the Whale

ɪ. Introduction

Patriarchal Dominations in Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea is a work written by Jean Rhys who was born at Roseau, Dominica, one of the Windward Islands. Rhys writes this story to rewrite Jane Eyre, one of the Victorian novels, written by Charlotte Brontë. In Jane Eyre, Brontë doesn’t refer more about Rochester’s mad wife, Bertha, and Brontë doesn’t tell reader how Bertha becomes a mad woman. But in Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys focuses on Antoinette’s life and makes Bertha could articulate her life about how she suffered in the racial dimension, the eye of Eurocentrism, and patriarchal domination and how she become a mad woman. This story totally subverts our impression from Jane Eyre and it makes us pity for Rochester’s wife, Bertha for her unhappy and unfortunate events through her narration. In this paper, I would like to focus on how the patriarchal dominations affect many characters’ life in this story.

Masochistic Theatre of Unrequited Love in 500 Days of Summer
Abstract
In 500 Days of Summer, the protagonist, Tom Hansen who is affected by popular music and films lead to his misunderstanding on love. In this film, Tom loves a girl, Summer Finn who doesn’t want to love anyone, to be anyone’s girlfriend. Although Tom knows the truth, he still chooses to love her until Summer leaves him. This condition may make us recall the Žižekian Approach on masochistic theatre of courtly love. In this approach, Žižek presents the loved object located in the higher position ‘Woman as a Lady’ which is shaped from the fantasy of the subject of loving until the fantasy disappears. While the fantasy disappears, the loved object becomes the object of hatred. After Summer leaves Tom, Tom realizes the truth is endowed in the false veil which are constructed by the ideology of popular music, Film, and greeting card nowadays. And my proposed research is to explore the masochistic theatre of unrequited love which is resulted by the fancy of love with Žižekian approach and discloses how the fictitious ideology of modern products influences people nowadays.

A Discussion Characters’ Selfhood/ Social Status as Tragic Cause in EdwardⅡ
There are many elements leads to tragic misfortune or death in the tragedy includes fate, selfhood, tragic flaw, and so on. For instance, Oedipus the King is a typical tragedy which is caused by the fate and character’s selfhood with tragic flaw. In some critic’s interpretation, EdwardⅡ likes one of Marlowe’s play, Doctor Faustus, is a tragedy about the quest for selfhood. But I also think in this play, character’s social status also results in their tragic ending. Hence, in this paper, I would like to quote some critics’ views to reveal which is the cause for this tragedy: selfhood or social status.
First of all, I would like to talk about character’s selfhood. In the tragedy, some character’s selfhoods often accompany with his/her tragic flaw, and his/her tragic flaw leads into his/her misfortune. I would like to use the definition on tragic flaw from A Glossary of Literary Terms. According to A Glossary of Literary Terms, “ tragic flaw (One common form of hamartia in Greek tragedies was hubris, that “pride’’ or overweening self-confidence which leads a protagonist to disregard a divine warning to violate an important moral law)” (322). In this tragedy, the protagonist, Edward II is proud; he disregards the suggestion from his councilor. For example, his councilor and his younger brother all suggest him to banish his minion, Gaveston out of the kingdom but he refuses. Aristotle portrays these characters whose personality accompanies with the tragic flaw as the tragic hero. In A Glossary of Literary Terms’s view, Aristotle refers tragic hero:

Masochistic Theatre of Unrequited Love in 500 Days of Summer
Abstract
In 500 Days of Summer, the protagonist, Tom Hansen who is affected by popular music and film leads to his misunderstanding on love. In this film, Tom loves a girl, Summer Finn who doesn’t want to love anyone, be anyone’s girlfriend. Although Tom knows the truth, he still chooses to love her until Summer leaves him. This condition may make us recall the Zizekian Approach on masochistic theatre of courtly love. In this approach, Zizek presents the object of loved located in the higher position ‘Woman as a Lady’ which is shaped from the fancy of the subject of loving until the fancy disappears. While the fancy disappears, the object of loved becomes the object of hatred. After Summer departs Tom, Tom realizes the truth is endowed in the false veil which are constructed by the ideology of popular music, film, and greeting card nowadays. And my contention is that explore the masochistic theatre of unrequited love which is resulted by the fancy of love with Zizekian approach and discloses how the fictitious ideology of modern products influences people nowadays.

Surrealistic Portrayals in “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror” by John Ashbery
There are many outstanding poets in the different period of the 20th century in American literature, such as Robert Frost, T. S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, John Ashbery, and so on. And one of these poets mentioned before is John Ashbery who won many literary awards includes Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and so on. John Ashbery who famous for “moves freely between different modes of discourse between a language of popular culture and common experience and a heightened rhetoric often associated with poetic vision,” according to the shorter edition of Norton Anthology of American Literature has referred. (2606) And in his writing, “he has often written in a way that challenges the boundaries between poetry and prose,” according to the shorter edition of Norton Anthology of American Literature has referred. (2606) I would like to choose one of his poem likes this style poetry “between and prose’’ which has mentioned from the shorter edition of Norton Anthology of American Literature has referred, and makes him get three awards in 1976. (2606) Since John Ashbery has dealt with this longer and complicated poem in different dimensions includes the realistic descriptions of this portrait includes the portrait, the material of creating this portrait, the procedure of creating this portrait which was drawn by an Italian painter in the Renaissance period, Parmigianino through use the convex mirror, and the surrealistic portrayals from this portrait. I will focus on the surrealistic portrayals from this portrait.
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, surreal means “very strange: more like a dream than reality, with ideas and images mixed together in a strange way.” (2035) There are many surrealistic conditions are portrayed in this poem. I will cites some surrealistic portrayals to explore how surrealistic works through these ways likes summaries, from my view or from other critiques in the following paragraph.

Colonialism, Sexuality, and Exile in The Book of Salt
The Book of Salt is a novel, is written by a Vietnamese-American writer, Monique Truong. This is a complicated novel to read because Truong juxtaposes the plot of present and the past in her description on a chapter. This is also a multi-language novel includes English, French, and Vietnamese. Truong gets more than three literary awards includes the Asian American Literary Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Britain’s Guardian First Book Award for her originality in this novel. In her notable work, Truong deals with many issues such as race, language, food, faith, colonialism, sexuality, journey, and so on. But I would like to portray on colonialism, sexuality, and exile in the whole paper. The protagonist, Binh who born in Saigon, where is a French colonist. With his older brother, Minh’s recommendation, Binh works as the “garde-manager” in the Governor-General’s kitchen. But Binh is expelled out of the Governor-General’s kitchen since he is founded he falls in love with the French chef Blériot. After the longer wandering, Binh comes to Paris and works as a cook for two American lesbian Madame in Paris.
Since I have mentioned before that the protagonist, Binh is a Vietnamese and works for the Governor-General’s kitchen, I would like to refer the first issue. There are many dimensions on the portrayals of colonialism in this book. Truong deals with this issue on three dimensions, includes the portrayals of colonial society, food, and language.

Summary on “There Is No Sexual Relationship” by Slavoj Žižek
In this essay, Slavoj Žižek tries to respond Lacan’s insight ‘There is no sexual relationship’ affirms that there is an opposite condition between the relationship of man and woman through exploring on Wagner’s operas and two films from Kieslowski and Sautet. In this summary, I would likes to focus on five topics includes the motif of renunciation, women’s suffering, androgynous reconciliation, function of death drive, and two films from Kieslowski and Sautet which shows the deadlock of love. At first, Žižek refers a topic “renunciation” which appears in Wagner’s opera, Ring. In this drama, there is a rule ‘only the one who renounces the power of love can take possession of the gold.’ Žižek mentions Claude Levi-Strauss’ insight on this. In Levi-Strauss’ interpretation, there is a problem on the social exchange. For Žižek, “the choice of power not only involves the loss of love but also results in the loss of power” (177). Žižek mentions Kierkegaardian’s stages to respond that why ‘love’s deepest need is to renounce its own power’ which also corresponds the problem on the impossibility of the sexual relationship. In the second place, Žižek refers Wagner’s insights to represent the sexual relationship between man and woman. In Wagner’s view, “man and woman complement each other. Woman is the all-embracing unity, the ground that bears man” (183). But for Žižek, “woman should be subordinated to the formative power of man in her positive, empirical existence” (183). Also, in Žižek’s own interpretation, woman knows she is suffered in this patriarchal society because it seems to people doesn’t care about her suffering on renunciation for her beloved man. Also Žižek thinks women’s suffering like a tool to make man get his redemption and the public social triumph from others. For instance, “the young wife in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, who knows of her husband’s secret adulterous passion, but feigns ignorance in order to save their marriage” (193). Hence, Žižek mentions that people purify themselves through the sacrifice of the Other. In the third place, Žižek refers a condition show androgynous reconciliation from Wagner’s opera, Parsifal. In Parsifal, there are examples to show the androgynous reconciliation on two dimensions: the form and the space. For example, one executes the musical form on chromaticism while performs on the stage and another one executes the musical form on diatonics. Also, in this opera, there are two spaces: Klingsor’s castle and the temple of the Grail refers to the distinction between fulfills one’s desire and renounces the desire. What’s more, Žižek cites the Freudian notion of ‘death drive’ to connect with the problem on the lovers whose love can’t exist on the symbolic order in Tristan. For Freud, the death drive endeavors to erase the symbolic order. In Tristan, the lover who can’t love in the symbolic order in the world so they choose to drink the potion of death to die. After the lovers die, they can ignore the order of the symbolic pact and feel free to acknowledge their passion. So in this drama, the potion of death may function as a tool like death drive to escape the symbolic order. Last but not the least, Žižek refers two films to show the deadlock of love. In the first film, A Film on Love which also shows the failed metaphoric substitution of the object of loved one turns into the subject of loving one.
In the beginning of this film, Tomek is the subject of loving one who peeps on a sexually attractive woman, Maria Magdalena who lives in the same block, across from Tomek’s backyard. At first, Tomek intervenes her life through sending her false notices of money orders and calling plumbers to her apartment in the middle of love-making. Until one day, Tomek gathers his courage to confess that he is the source of her recent nuisances and Maria entices him into a humiliating sexual game that ends in his attempted suicide. After his return from the hospital, their respective roles are reversed: Maria stirred by her guilt and constantly observes his window from her apartment, endeavors to attract his attention, whereas he now ignores her. (196)