Working Title:
"Et tu, Brute?" - What's really in a name?
Working Thesis Statement:
Although naming may not directly cause violence, it can create an association and dissociation between the speaker, audience, and subject that incites extreme emotions that lead to violence.Scholarly Sources:
Schalkwyk, David. “’What’s in a name’: Derrida, apartheid, and the logic of the proper name.” Language Sciences, 22, 2000, pp. 167-191. <www.elsevier.com/locate/langsci>This article discusses the relationship between sign, signifier, and signified through focusing on Derrida’s analysis of Juliet’s “O Romeo” speech, and argues that names are not arbitrary and that Romeo’s name does actually matter. I’d like to use this source to establish background on the purpose of naming in general and combat Juliet’s assertion that Romeo’s name is insignificant.
This article talks about the significance of naming in Romeo and Juliet, specifically of Juliet’s balcony scene and the interactions between Romeo, Tybalt, and Mercutio. I’d like to use this source to provide commentary on Tybalt and Mercutio’s violent name calling and later deaths, showing that they used naming to create distance between themselves and their enemies.
Performances:
This is Commonwealth’s production of Julius Caesar. I liked it in comparison to some others that I found because it had background music and mostly good acting. I want to talk specifically about the scenes where Cassius convinces Brutus to betray Caesar and Mark Antony speaking to the plebeians at Caesar’s funeral. Cassius carves Brutus’ name into a wall beneath Caesar’s name, and then crosses out Caesar’s name, and Mark Antony reveal’s Caesar’s body to the public. Both provide powerful images to the words of the play and show how the speaker tried to bring the audience closer to them.
This clip takes you to the balcony scene of the movie. I liked this movie production of Romeo and Juliet because it still took a classical approach to the play. I want to talk about the body language in the balcony scene where Juliet speaks to Romeo (hypothetically), as well as the body language with Tybalt’s and Mercutio’s interactions, in order to show a connection that proves that the speaker strengthens both associations and dissociations with the use of naming.
I like your thesis statement. What was the inspiration for it?
ReplyDeleteMy interest was originally sparked by the many labels and names that are used to describe the characters of the Julius Caesar and how they seemed to persuade the characters to violence. However, I was also interested in examining the rhetoric used by the candidates in this past election e.i. how they labeled each other and how they labeled their audience and different social and cultural groups in the United Sates.
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