Document Type : Original Article
Authors
Art univercity of tehran
10.30480/dam.2021.1269.1313
Abstract
What Louis Althusser, one of most influential Marxist philosopher in 20th century stated as ideological government seemed so radical at the time, but using his theory for analyzing plays like Enemy of the People, would be very promising now . In althusser`s theory, the government is an inaudible and multifunctional set of ideological and repressive elements, and such a government has different mechanisms, both private and public, for its ideology, and in this article By examining the state of the state in such a way, we will try to approach a new way of interpretation for the play of the enemy of the people written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Although the traditional readings of this play usually tries to interpret the play as a political, upright discussion about peoples trustworthiness and the rights of publics authority leads to an argument about power of people`s thought and common sense. These readings are generally based on the assumption that Dr. Stokman (the doctor of the city) is a person against his own community, a person who challenges the right of the community and can be regarded as an Enlightenment hero who is questioning the power of democracy with verifying truth. But applying Althusser`s theory of the ideological state, in our reading of this play, will show that the characters in front of Dr. Stokman are not people in the common sense of the word, but the state in the sense of Altusser. This reading shows how institutions such as educational institutions, the media, and even the family, as the ideological arms of the state, transform each person into their concrete subjects. This very Sight uncover hidden elements wrapped in individual characters encountering each other in an expanded plane of ideology. Characters are trapped in ideology, despite their wishes and all their action can be observe as ideological actions and reactions. This ideology expanded through all places in the play. Places which are not just somewhere dramatic actions happens, but somewhere that ideological state start to addresses people as subjects, and give them this illusion that they are free characters to choose their ideas but the truth is everything they are just reproducing dominant ideology of the play`s universe. Thus, the characters of this work can be interpreted not as protagonists or anti-heroes of enlightenment and truth, but as those who are caught up in the ideology of the state What Althusser described as an ideological instrument of the state can be adapted to the local signs and characters of the drama of the enemy of the people, and using this form of analysis, Ibsen's razor's critique is not based on the community of people Or the majority, but on the mechanism of government in its general sense. In fact What Althusser described as the mechanism of government includes many cases, which are generally seemingly private entities involved in the reproduction of state ideology. The adaptation of these institutions to what Ibsen used as dramatic dramatist dramatically poses ourselves to conditions that can be called "Stokeman's condition”
Keywords