El Golem Review Prometheus Syndrome. the Modern Language Journal

The Prometheus Syndrome by Bettina L. KnappReview by: Alice G. TunksThe Modern Language Journal, Vol. 64, No. 2 (Summer, 1980), pp. 280-282Published by: Wiley on behalf of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers AssociationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/325353 .Accessed: 15/09/2014 11:59

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280

ing. It analyzes the dichotomy between the

stage actor (the person and his double, that is the character he is portraying) and the audience. When going to the theatre spectators enter into complicity with the stage hap- penings; they accept the fact that they are ex-

periencing illusion as a reality. The plays Schlueter examines (by Pirandello, Genet, Beckett, Albee, Stoppard, Weiss, and

Handke) ask spectators to maintain a cogni- tive attitude, to accept the fact that they are

witnessing fiction. Although they may be dis- turbed by the duality before them, they are aware of the confrontation between reality and illusion and, therefore, their theatrical

experience is more profound than that of per- sons who merely absorb theatrical happen- ings.

The duality which comes into being with the separation of the dramatic character and event "is at the heart of the metafictional character" which Schlueter probes. Piran- dello's works, such as Henry Iv, are illustra- tions of this dichotomy: reality and illusion, life and art, varied approaches to truth, the

many-sidedness of personality. Henry Iv is the

"prototype of the metafictional character in modern self-conscious drama."

The relationship between the role and

reality is also illustrated in Genet's plays, The

Maids, The Balcony, The Blacks. A world of

fantasy takes hold and possession of the

weakly-structured individual and lives on

stage. For Genet, it is through illusion that

reality becomes discernible: the lie which takes people to the theatre allows them to see themselves on stage and in so doing, shatters, at least temporarily, the mask they wear in "real" life.

Beckett's Waiting for Godot, End Game, and Krapp's Last Tape expose the two-sidedness of couples, each representing the other

aspect of the one. In Beckett's plays, audiences are frequently aware of what is tak-

ing place; they also know "that living is play- ing, and, consequently, all that is left to modern man is illusion." As Schlueter says so well, it is "only in play and art that universal man can find justification for his existence, for

play and art offer him the illusion of mean-

ing." Chapters on Weiss' Marat-Sade, Albee's

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Tom

280

ing. It analyzes the dichotomy between the

stage actor (the person and his double, that is the character he is portraying) and the audience. When going to the theatre spectators enter into complicity with the stage hap- penings; they accept the fact that they are ex-

periencing illusion as a reality. The plays Schlueter examines (by Pirandello, Genet, Beckett, Albee, Stoppard, Weiss, and

Handke) ask spectators to maintain a cogni- tive attitude, to accept the fact that they are

witnessing fiction. Although they may be dis- turbed by the duality before them, they are aware of the confrontation between reality and illusion and, therefore, their theatrical

experience is more profound than that of per- sons who merely absorb theatrical happen- ings.

The duality which comes into being with the separation of the dramatic character and event "is at the heart of the metafictional character" which Schlueter probes. Piran- dello's works, such as Henry Iv, are illustra- tions of this dichotomy: reality and illusion, life and art, varied approaches to truth, the

many-sidedness of personality. Henry Iv is the

"prototype of the metafictional character in modern self-conscious drama."

The relationship between the role and

reality is also illustrated in Genet's plays, The

Maids, The Balcony, The Blacks. A world of

fantasy takes hold and possession of the

weakly-structured individual and lives on

stage. For Genet, it is through illusion that

reality becomes discernible: the lie which takes people to the theatre allows them to see themselves on stage and in so doing, shatters, at least temporarily, the mask they wear in "real" life.

Beckett's Waiting for Godot, End Game, and Krapp's Last Tape expose the two-sidedness of couples, each representing the other

aspect of the one. In Beckett's plays, audiences are frequently aware of what is tak-

ing place; they also know "that living is play- ing, and, consequently, all that is left to modern man is illusion." As Schlueter says so well, it is "only in play and art that universal man can find justification for his existence, for

play and art offer him the illusion of mean-

ing." Chapters on Weiss' Marat-Sade, Albee's

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Tom

Reviews

Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and Handke's The Ride Across Lake Constance conclude Schlueter's well-or-

ganized and well-thought-out volume. The

chapter on Handke is the most original and

perhaps the most personal. BETTINA L. KNAPP Hunter College and the Graduate Center of CUNY

Reviews

Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and Handke's The Ride Across Lake Constance conclude Schlueter's well-or-

ganized and well-thought-out volume. The

chapter on Handke is the most original and

perhaps the most personal. BETTINA L. KNAPP Hunter College and the Graduate Center of CUNY

KNAPP, BETTINA L. The Prometheus Syn- drome. Troy: Whitston, 1979. Pp. 286. KNAPP, BETTINA L. The Prometheus Syn- drome. Troy: Whitston, 1979. Pp. 286.

In The Prometheus Syndrome, Bettina

Knapp gives us a fresh and stimulating approach to great authors whom we see most often arbitrarily categorized by periods, literary theories, art forms and the like. As she has done previously with such major figures as Descartes, Racine, Hugo, Celine, or Mallarme, she casts new light on authors as different as Voltaire, Goethe, Balzac, Hesse, and Malraux while she resurrects haunting figures of the past such as Rabbi Judah Loew, Albertus Magnus and Paracelsus. Thus en-

compassing centuries of philosophical, artistic and religious divergences, Bettina Knapp seeks to capture the continuity and the vitality of a myth solidly anchored in the civilization of the Occident. Some of us may regret that her investigation should leave out some other Prometheans like Dante, Rabelais, Diderot, Proust, or Joyce, but the field is broad and what Knapp attempts is not to enumerate

likely Promethean candidates, but to select works which illustrate more pointedly a cer- tain aspect of the myth. In that light then, the choice of Voltaire, Hesse or Malraux appears particularly provoking.

The Prometheus myth is a complex and dy- namic symbol which has grown in richness and implications throughout the ages. A

Titan, Prometheus is seen in Greek mythology as the giant who challenged the supremacy of Zeus. He is the fire stealer, and the savior of mankind. But his Messianic nature is not to be confused with that of Christ, who offers Himself as the sacrificial Lamb of God. Pro- metheus is a rebel. His arrogance or "hubris"

In The Prometheus Syndrome, Bettina

Knapp gives us a fresh and stimulating approach to great authors whom we see most often arbitrarily categorized by periods, literary theories, art forms and the like. As she has done previously with such major figures as Descartes, Racine, Hugo, Celine, or Mallarme, she casts new light on authors as different as Voltaire, Goethe, Balzac, Hesse, and Malraux while she resurrects haunting figures of the past such as Rabbi Judah Loew, Albertus Magnus and Paracelsus. Thus en-

compassing centuries of philosophical, artistic and religious divergences, Bettina Knapp seeks to capture the continuity and the vitality of a myth solidly anchored in the civilization of the Occident. Some of us may regret that her investigation should leave out some other Prometheans like Dante, Rabelais, Diderot, Proust, or Joyce, but the field is broad and what Knapp attempts is not to enumerate

likely Promethean candidates, but to select works which illustrate more pointedly a cer- tain aspect of the myth. In that light then, the choice of Voltaire, Hesse or Malraux appears particularly provoking.

The Prometheus myth is a complex and dy- namic symbol which has grown in richness and implications throughout the ages. A

Titan, Prometheus is seen in Greek mythology as the giant who challenged the supremacy of Zeus. He is the fire stealer, and the savior of mankind. But his Messianic nature is not to be confused with that of Christ, who offers Himself as the sacrificial Lamb of God. Pro- metheus is a rebel. His arrogance or "hubris"


http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

Reviews

leads him to challenge the Creator, to become a god himself. For that crime, he is punished and chained to a mountain in the Caucasus, where an eagle feasts daily on his liver, which is regenerated at night. The ancient conflict opposing Zeus with the Titan parallels the existing one between modern man and God. The myth fascinated Jung. Referring to the work of Spitteler, Prometheus and Epi- metheus, he sees the Greek myth reflected in the ideas and the movements which are ger- minating in the collective unconscious of his century, and hails its prophetic and timely significance: "Nietzsche claims that God is dead and in Spitteler, the rise and fall of the gods become some sort of seasonal myth . . . If one compares Spitteler's Prometheus with the contemporary drama which engulfs us, one will understand what I mean when I speak of the prophetic significance of the great works of art" (Problemes de l'dme moderne, p. 243).

Tracing its earliest interpretations, Knapp stresses the ambivalent nature of the myth. Prometheus, she notes, was both "fire as energy and power, fire as intellect and rational principle" (p. 21), ". .. both titanic (explosive) and cerebral (intuitive, rational ...)" (p. 22). The authors which she selects illustrate various aspects of the Pro- methean figure. Rabbi Loew, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus are instilled with the Titan's creative elan, but remain obedient to God. On the other hand, Voltaire, Balzac, and Hesse exemplify modern man torn between his rational and his irrational spheres. Knapp singles out Andre Malraux as the one writer who, she explains, has achieved total integration of the self. A true mystic, like Pro- metheus, he is similarly free from religious dogma. Because he is a visionary and yet a cerebral being, he can read through the phe- nomenological world and comprehend the modern significance of the myth. For Mal- raux, man's role in the universe is akin to the alchemist's quest. Just as the latter labors to blend and crystallize the original elements into one, so must the artist create a "concreti- zation of the archetypal images which live in- choate within his depths" (p. 242).

A rebel, Prometheus is seen primarily as a man of action who participates energetically in his evolution and in the molding of his

281

identity. He will eventually achieve his own rebirth. In his search for the Self, he has to break away from the authority governing the

early phase of his existence. This, he knows, is

accompanied by anguish and suffering. In Jungian terms, he must transcend the ego, or the ouroboric phase, before he can accede to the Self or to the collective sphere. In that sense, no doubt that all true artists share in the Promethean quest.

The "solar" myth, or the myth of the "hero" which Prometheus also portrays, further elaborate on the transformation or the metamorphosis process involved. Disturb-

ing parallels appear between the artist's or the alchemist's goal and that of the Christian as they all seek unity or salvation. The opus of the alchemist develops along the same lines as the ritual of the Mass and implies the supreme act of transubstantiation. However, while Christ is the instrument of the Christian's salvation, in the alchemist's opus it is man's function to liberate or "save" the collective soul imprisoned into matter. "Is not this work of the Promethean therefore" writes Jung in Paracelsica (p. 74), "diametrically opposed to the Christian spirit?" A puzzling question in- deed, if one is to reconcile, in men like Rabbi Loew, Albertus Magnus, or Paracelsus, the

independent spirit of the Promethean with the submissiveness implicit in Judeo-Christian values.

As she casts light upon the Promethean characteristics of these "men of all seasons," Knapp's obvious design is to emphasize the need for us to recognize the myth as a living force in our collective being. As Jung and Seifert had also warned, she alerts us to the dangers of a culture that has lost contact with life. Modern artists like Malraux who de- nounce the almighty "logos" of our culture are orienting us toward an existential aware- ness which is the true reflection of a genera- tion confronted with anguish.

Is this, the reader may ask in conclusion, a book of criticism or a creative work? We ven- ture "criticism on the move" rather than psychocriticism. Those of us who are familiar with Knapp's work know how deeply the author is committed to the moral significance of art. Her presence is felt throughout the investigation she directs in a most rigorous manner. She does not draw conclusions; she



282

analyzes, clarifies, orients. What one can ex-

pect is to gain access to a privileged, intimate

knowledge of the author behind the work as she leads to the point of departure, where

images are born. Hers is a fascinating, near mediumistic grasp of the creative process. Strangely, because of her uncanny sensitivity for apprehending the essential, her analysis of a particular text seems to illuminate the significance of the total work as if she had dis- tilled its very essence.

Thus The Promethean Syndrome reaches us far more deeply than a traditional study. Transcending the individual works which she has endowed with a new, collective urgency, what she does in fact is disturb our apathy, and challenge our disregard of the profound meaning of art. ALICE G. TUNKS

Rockhurst College

282

analyzes, clarifies, orients. What one can ex-

pect is to gain access to a privileged, intimate

knowledge of the author behind the work as she leads to the point of departure, where

images are born. Hers is a fascinating, near mediumistic grasp of the creative process. Strangely, because of her uncanny sensitivity for apprehending the essential, her analysis of a particular text seems to illuminate the significance of the total work as if she had dis- tilled its very essence.

Thus The Promethean Syndrome reaches us far more deeply than a traditional study. Transcending the individual works which she has endowed with a new, collective urgency, what she does in fact is disturb our apathy, and challenge our disregard of the profound meaning of art. ALICE G. TUNKS

Rockhurst College

SMITH, ELSIE C. & LOUISE FIBER LUCE, eds.

Toward Internationalism: Readings in Cross- Cultural Communication. Rowley, MA: New-

bury House, 1979. Pp. xiv + 226. $8.95.

SMITH, ELSIE C. & LOUISE FIBER LUCE, eds.

Toward Internationalism: Readings in Cross- Cultural Communication. Rowley, MA: New-

bury House, 1979. Pp. xiv + 226. $8.95.

Fourteen well-selected landmarks, quite im-

possible to assemble for oneself, enable either a beginner or a re-reader to enjoy seeing how the modern mind at its best has become

sophisticated about the differences in values and practices from one culture to another. A

college or senior-high student will find the materials and organizing ideas for a good grasp of what it would mean to base our international contacts and ethnic relations on the

principle of cultural pluralism. At the junior- high level, the concrete cases should provide engaging material for "global education," both as social studies and as a link to language learning, for the key words given in Euro-

pean, Asian, and other languages begin to show one that other systems of meanings carve

up reality into different supposed entities. The fourteen chapters broaden but never

depart from an American-centered perspective. This is defensible, and probably un- avoidable until we can perceive the world without translating it into our terms. The se-

Fourteen well-selected landmarks, quite im-

possible to assemble for oneself, enable either a beginner or a re-reader to enjoy seeing how the modern mind at its best has become

sophisticated about the differences in values and practices from one culture to another. A

college or senior-high student will find the materials and organizing ideas for a good grasp of what it would mean to base our international contacts and ethnic relations on the

principle of cultural pluralism. At the junior- high level, the concrete cases should provide engaging material for "global education," both as social studies and as a link to language learning, for the key words given in Euro-

pean, Asian, and other languages begin to show one that other systems of meanings carve

up reality into different supposed entities. The fourteen chapters broaden but never

depart from an American-centered perspective. This is defensible, and probably un- avoidable until we can perceive the world without translating it into our terms. The se-

Reviews Reviews

lections do give many comparisons between American and contrasting patterns, focusing largely, and to very good effect, on values and

assumptions. Edward C. Stewart's initial chapter takes

this contrastive approach to American values and assumptions, and John P. Fieg elaborates a comparison with the concept of the self in Thai culture.

Kalervo Oberg's little classic, in which he coined the term "culture shock," is one of the selections that needed a note in the interest of historical perspective, which we must not for-

get as we explore our new intercultural di- mension. The only date given is that of a re- cent reprint, 1972; actually the paper was de- livered in the 1940's, and since then the con-

cept has been expanded, for example, by the Institute of International Education data on

foreign students and Alvin Toffler's extension of the idea to Future Shock (1970). Oberg's chapter is accompanied by one on practical ways of integrating oneself empathically in another culture, from a book by Robert G.

Hanvey. The editors' introduction, in a helpful

overview, groups together two pairs of chapters. Raymond Gorden analyzes how native culture patterns interfere in the adaptation of Peace Corps workers in Colombia, while Lawrence Stessin, in the volume's final chapter, does the same for American business rep- resentatives abroad. The second pair focuses on linguistic interferences. Lorand Szalay and Glen H. Fisher show graphically, for the

visually-oriented student, how Korean and American cultures confer very different con- notative meanings on dictionary "equiva- lents." Dean C. Barnlund contrasts Japanese and American proprieties with regard to self- disclosure.

A group of three chapters explores the fas-

cinating world of nonverbal communication.

John C. Condon and Fathi Yousef relate home space and house styles to value systems of East and West. Edward T. Hall sum- marizes his pioneering research on the unsus-

pected differences in American, English, French and German space perception, their mental organization of space, and their unconscious conventionalities of social distance. A practical chapter by Melvin Schnapper ends this trilogy with an account of how Peace

lections do give many comparisons between American and contrasting patterns, focusing largely, and to very good effect, on values and

assumptions. Edward C. Stewart's initial chapter takes

this contrastive approach to American values and assumptions, and John P. Fieg elaborates a comparison with the concept of the self in Thai culture.

Kalervo Oberg's little classic, in which he coined the term "culture shock," is one of the selections that needed a note in the interest of historical perspective, which we must not for-

get as we explore our new intercultural di- mension. The only date given is that of a re- cent reprint, 1972; actually the paper was de- livered in the 1940's, and since then the con-

cept has been expanded, for example, by the Institute of International Education data on

foreign students and Alvin Toffler's extension of the idea to Future Shock (1970). Oberg's chapter is accompanied by one on practical ways of integrating oneself empathically in another culture, from a book by Robert G.

Hanvey. The editors' introduction, in a helpful

overview, groups together two pairs of chapters. Raymond Gorden analyzes how native culture patterns interfere in the adaptation of Peace Corps workers in Colombia, while Lawrence Stessin, in the volume's final chapter, does the same for American business rep- resentatives abroad. The second pair focuses on linguistic interferences. Lorand Szalay and Glen H. Fisher show graphically, for the

visually-oriented student, how Korean and American cultures confer very different con- notative meanings on dictionary "equiva- lents." Dean C. Barnlund contrasts Japanese and American proprieties with regard to self- disclosure.

A group of three chapters explores the fas-

cinating world of nonverbal communication.

John C. Condon and Fathi Yousef relate home space and house styles to value systems of East and West. Edward T. Hall sum- marizes his pioneering research on the unsus-

pected differences in American, English, French and German space perception, their mental organization of space, and their unconscious conventionalities of social distance. A practical chapter by Melvin Schnapper ends this trilogy with an account of how Peace



Article Contentsp.280p.281p.282

Issue Table of ContentsThe Modern Language Journal, Vol. 64, No. 2 (Summer, 1980), pp. 167-286+i-xviiiFront Matter [pp.228-229]Minority Language Maintenance and the Ethnic Mother Tongue School [pp.167-172]Legacies of the Tower of Babel [pp.173-178]On Notional Syllabuses [pp.179-186]How America Got Its Foreign Language Gap [pp.187-189]Cultural Strategies in Elementary College Language Courses [pp.190-196]The Humorist in the Language Laboratory [pp.197-202]The Short Circuit Hypothesis of ESL Reading - Or When Language Competence Interferes with Reading Performance [pp.203-209]Native Speaker Reaction to Instructor-Identified Student Second-Language Errors [pp.210-215]The Treatment of Error in Written Work [pp.216-221]On Knowing a Foreign Language [pp.222-227]Notes and News [pp.230-244]Reviewsuntitled [p.245]untitled [pp.245-247]untitled [p.247]untitled [p.248]untitled [pp.248-249]untitled [pp.249-250]untitled [p.250]untitled [p.251]untitled [pp.251-252]untitled [pp.252-253]untitled [p.253]untitled [pp.253-254]untitled [pp.254-255]untitled [p.255]untitled [p.256]untitled [pp.256-257]untitled [p.257]untitled [p.258]untitled [pp.258-259]untitled [pp.259-260]untitled [p.261]untitled [pp.261-262]untitled [pp.262-264]untitled [p.264]untitled [pp.264-265]untitled [pp.265-266]untitled [pp.266-267]untitled [pp.267-268]untitled [pp.268-269]untitled [pp.269-270]untitled [p.270]untitled [pp.270-271]untitled [pp.271-272]untitled [p.272]untitled [pp.272-273]untitled [pp.273-274]untitled [p.274]untitled [p.275]untitled [pp.275-276]untitled [pp.276-277]untitled [pp.277-278]untitled [pp.278-279]untitled [p.279]untitled [pp.279-280]untitled [pp.280-282]untitled [pp.282-283]untitled [pp.283-284]untitled [pp.284-285]untitled [pp.285-286]

Back Matter [pp.i-xviii]

Documents

El Golem Review Prometheus Syndrome. the Modern Language Journal