권력대항으로서 코나투스와 환유적 언어전략 - The Devil's Disciple, Arms and the Man, Man and Superman을 중심으로-

Abstract

This essay aims to analyse the discourse strategy and linguistic rhetoric of the characters who have positive liberal emotions, a desire to survive, conatus to fight against the oppressive social regulation system and habitus castle, which were manipulated by the power of religion and capital in The Devil's Disciple, Arms and the Man, and Man and Superman. By using humor, wit, sarcasm, satire, parody, reversal and subversion, Bernard Shaw would not miss the motives of playwriting to improve the contradictions and corruption of social and political systems. Shaw's expressionistic prototype theatre of ideas diagnoses such antisocial personality disorder traumas as megalomania and narcissistic personality disorder, rooted deeply in a British Society which has been in the cave of fantasy dexterously manipulated by the upper classes of religion and economy. As the optimal treatment against the mental diseases, he used to suggest Spinoza's conatus, Nietzsche's intuition, and Bergson's creative evolution energy. In The Devil's Disciple, the anti-hero, Richard, who has liberal sensibility under the authoritative social system of strict Puritanism, reenacts the image of the devil who fights against the disciple of Christianity and the religious powers that Anderson, Judith, Mrs Dudgeon, Swindon, and Burgoyne have eagerly respected. Such an experimental stage gives the audience the ironic question of whether Richard is a devil under the conventional religious society. Arms and the Man, with the war between Bulgaria and Serbia as its background, shows the ironical contradiction of amateur war heroes who make much of honor and authority. With Blunchili's liberal discourse strategy full of jokes and wit, this stage exposes the narcissistic personality disorders of Sergius, Raina, Catherine, and Petcoff, who have been oppressed by the violence of the conventional social authority and capitalist class. And finally, Man and Superman is Shaw's representative theatre of ideas which conveys the exact concepts of his life-force and übermansch (beyond man's ability) to the audience as well as readers. With factive space combined with non-factive stage mixed with dream and illusion, this work shows the characters' mental disorders who lost epistemic criticism and normal linguistic ability under the social conventions and corruption formed by a capitalist and ideological power. In the three plays, Shaw suggests the insight, intuition, and conatus of Spinoza, Nietzsche, and Bergson as practical alternatives to overcome a series of social problems and mental diseases of modern society.