FROM PLATO’S CAVE TO MODERN PRISONS: VISION AND OBSCURITY IN 20TH CENTURY POLITICAL LITERATURE, FILM, AND ART

Authors

  • Patrícia Vieira Georgetown University

Keywords:

light, darkness, blindness, political literature, collectivity, subjectivity, art

Abstract

Ever since Plato and until the Enlightenment, light has been associated to Goodness, knowledge and Truth. However, the discourse under which light was regarded as something positive and that associated darkness to ignorance has been reevaluated from the nineteenth century onwards. The emphasis on shadows and obscurity, which emerged during Romanticism, has developed in the political literature, art and film of the twentieth century, when light has been linked to the excesses of reason leading to dehumanization in contemporary societies, and to totalitarianism. Conversely, darkness and blindness, rather than negative conditions, become metaphors of the resistance of the individual when confronted with political oppression. In this article, I explore this new understanding of darkness and blindness in the artworks of Ana Maria Pacheco, Ariel Dorfman’s play Death and the Maiden, the film Garage Olimpo, directed by Marco Bechis, and José Saramago’s novel Blindness.

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How to Cite

Vieira, P. (2014). FROM PLATO’S CAVE TO MODERN PRISONS: VISION AND OBSCURITY IN 20TH CENTURY POLITICAL LITERATURE, FILM, AND ART. 452ºF. Revista De Teoría De La Literatura Y Literatura Comparada, (10), 146–165. Retrieved from https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/452f/article/view/10922

Issue

No. 10 (2014): Theatre and Dictatorship in the 20th Century

Section

Miscellaneous

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Comparative Literature magazine 452ºF [ISSN 2013-3294] is a publishing project coordinated by Asociación Cultural 452ºF, and developed by its Editorial board.



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