리어의 '숨은 뜻'과 제국의 '지도' 그리기

Lear's Darker Purpose and the Mapping of the Empire: Open Meaning in King Lear and Peter Brook's Cinematic Reading

Shakespeare's King Lear covers a wide scope of themes presenting profound human realities, which makes it difficult to make a clear interpretation of the play and the playwright's intention. Moreover, considering that Shakespeare's texts are fundamentally a script for stage production rather than a literature for reading, the interpretation or appreciation of King Lear undeniably depends on the so-called extra-verbal dimension of the text. Ultimately the authentic approach to the maxim of the Shakespearean text demands for the reciprocal action between what is said in the text and what is seen on stage. In this respect, the concept of what Philip McGuire says 'open silence' is suggestive in both demanding and justifying the necessity of multi-dimensional as approaching tool for Shakespearean study. According to McGuire, Shakespearean text calls attention to the importance of theatrical dimension what is not voiced or silenced by the words in the play text, and therefore requires multi-dimensional reading between verbal and extra-verbal aspects. The opening scene of King Lear suggests a good example of such possibility of open meaning in that the meaning of Lear's declaration of his 'darker purpose' is open depending on the context actually visualized or constructed on stage, especially around the map Lear orders to be brought, and depending on the status of the map itself, symbolic projection of Lear: how it is carried in, where it is located, what shape it has. The interpretation of Lear's dark purpose and the map is also crucial to tell the physical and mental status of Lear and his kingdom, and also predict the meaning of the ending of the play, in terms of political order set up after the old king's death. In case of the 1971 film edition King Lear Peter Brook directed, the map is described as having already been on stage in the opening scene, and the wilderness and primitiveness of its appearance shows that choas and disorder is epidemic in Lear's world, delivering the feeling of loss of community. Also the picture portrayed in the opening scene promise no hope of rehabilitation or reestablishment or political order in the future of Lear's world, which touches on the historical reality of the British Empire what has been losing her power and prosperity since the second World War up to the 1970s.