Teleological Trajectory of Subjection: A Critique of Marlovian Heroes

Year 2020, Volume: 30 Issue: 2, 385 - 406, 23.12.2020

Sukhdev Sıngh

https://doi.org/10.26650/LITERA2020-0040

Abstract

One might view Christopher Marlowe’s heroes such as Tamburlaine, Barabas, Edward II and Doctor Faustus in terms of individuals who capably transgress the boundaries within which they are located. War for Tamburlaine; gold for Barabas; philia, which is defined as love or friendship between an older and a young man, for Edward II; and the knowledge of good and evil for Doctor Faustus are those mediums by which they apparently subjectivise themselves. This study analyses their subjectivities by posing a fundamental question: do they form their individuality on their own or is it a matter of a paradigm of divine providence? The paradigm of divine providence might be equivalent to a structure of power. This study has recourse to what might be termed the Foucauldian teleology, which is based on some of Michel Foucault’s fundamental ideas. In other words, in order to present a critique of Marlovian heroes, this study has recourse to the Foucauldian teleology which involves various mechanisms of control to subjectivise ordinary people in accordance with the state or the structures of power. Thus, the Marlovian heroes are kept in a centripetal motion, which might be viewed in terms of a trajectory of subjection that brings them out from the periphery and carries them to the centre for subjectivisation, within and by the structures of power. This study utilises the textual evidence from prologues and epilogues of some of Christopher Marlowe’s plays that may indicate such a process of subjectivisation.

Keywords

Christopher Marlowe, Michel Foucault, The Jew of Malta, Edward II, Doctor Faustus

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