A TALE OF TWO STATES: DEEP AND PARALLEL STATES IN SHAKESPEARE’S JULIUS CAESAR

Year 2019, Volume: 2 Issue: 3, 61 - 70, 30.07.2019

Fehmi Turgut

https://doi.org/10.33390/homeros.2.008

Abstract

Re-reading of Shakespeare has undergone significant
transformations in the last few decades, for Shakespeare’s plays always have
something to say about the time they are read. 
The strong relationship between drama and political sciences is another
factor for Shakespeare adaptations and appropriations. Instead of speaking
about specific events describing the way they occur, Shakespearean plays reveal
truths behind the so-called and perceived truths, not what is visible but what
is invisible, not what happens but what could happen, focusing on historical,
political and sociological probabilities and prophecies. Shakespeare’s plays
are a storehouse for such probabilities and prophecies. In his Roman tragedies,
Shakespearescripted many ideas, probabilities and prophecies about the concepts
of state and politics, which seem to belong to our own modern times. This study
aims to reread Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar on the basis of political context
with reference to two contemporary political concepts: deep state and parallel state.

Keywords

Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, politics, deep state, parallel state

References

• ALTHUSER, Louis(1971). Ideology and ideological state apparatus. In L. Althuser (Ed.), Lenin and Philosophy, and Other Essays. New York: Monthly Review Books, . Print. (Google Scholar)
• BEARD, Mary(2 October 2015). ‘Why Ancient Rome Matters to the Modern World’. The Guardian. Retrieved from: https://www.the guardian.com.
• BLOOM, Allanand JAFFA, Harry V., Shakespeare’s Politics, New York: Basic Books Inc. 1964. Print. (Google Scholar)
• BLUNDEN, William A. (2014) Why the deep state always wins: The Zero-Sum Game of Perpetual War. https://dissidentvoice.org/2014/09/why-the-deep-state-always-wins/
• BRISCO, I. (2008), The Proliferation of the “Parallel State”, Madrid: FRIDE
• EYRE, Richardand WRIGHT, Nicholas.Changing Stages: A View of British Theatre in The Twentieth Century, London: Bloomsbury. 2000. Print. (Google Scholar)
• FILKINS. D. “The Deep State,” New Yorker, March 12, 2012
• FRIEDMAN, George. “The Deep State”, Geopolitical Futures. March 15, 2017.https://geopoliticalfutures.com/the-deep-state/. Print. (Google Scholar)
• GARBER, MarjorieB. Shakespeare after All. New York: Anchor Books. 2004. Print. (Google Scholar)
• GIRALDI, Phillip. Deep State America. The American Conservative, July 30. 2015.Print. (Google Scholar)
• GLENNON, MichaelJ. National Security and Double Government. New York: OUP. 2015. Print. (Google Scholar)
• GRANDIN, Greg. “What Is the Deep State?” The Nation. 17 Feb. 2017. para. 1. Print. (Google Scholar)
• KIDNIE, Margaret Jane, Shakespeare and the Problem of Adaptation, New York: Routledge, 2009. Print. (Google Scholar)
• LOFGREN, Mike. The Deep State: the Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government, New York: Penguin Books. 2016. Print. (Google Scholar)
• MURLEY, John. A. and SEAN, Sutton D. Perspectives on Politics in Shakespeare, Lanham: Lexington Books, 2006. Print. (Google Scholar)
• PARENTI, Michael. The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A peoples History of Ancient Rome, NY: The New Press. 2003. p. 1. Print. (Google Scholar)
• PELLING, Christopher. Caesar Then Caesar Now, in Maria Wyke (Ed.) Julius Caesar in Western Culture, Blackwell Publishing: Oxford, 2006. Print. (Google Scholar)
• REMNICK, David. There is No Deep State. The New Yorker. 2017 Issue, March 20 http://www.newyorker.com/magazine /2017/03/20/there-is-no-deep-state).
• SHAKESPEARE, William. Julius Caesar. The Annotated Shakespeare. Ed. A. L. Rowse. Vol. III. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1978. 141-187.
• SÖYLER, Mehtap. The Turkish Deep State: State Consolidation, Civil-Military Relations and Democracy. New York: Routledge. 2015. Print. (Google Scholar)
• TAYLOR, Gary. Reinventing Shakespeare: a cultural history from the restoration to the present, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (Google Scholar)