'I am not what I am': Paradox and indirect communication: the case of the comic god and the dramaturgical self

Murphy, Peter (2009) 'I am not what I am': Paradox and indirect communication: the case of the comic god and the dramaturgical self. Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication, 1 (2). pp. 225-236.

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View at Publisher Website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/ejpc.1.2.225_1
 
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Abstract

An exploration of the self in dramaturgical societies: This is the double, duplicitous, witty self, the one who communicates indirectly through characters and masks, the self who is a personality, who knowingly plays a role on the public stage, and who inhabits a wry, not to say awry, paradoxical world created by a mischievous comic God. A motley bunch of characters wander across the stage of this article. These include recusant Catholics, American sociologists, theologians of paradox, philosophers of comedy, Oscar Schindler, Mick Jagger, William Shakespeare, G.K. Chesterton, as well as various assorted epicurean puritans, inventive liars, elusive playwrights, pompous intellectuals, sleuthing heroes from detective fiction, ambitious pretenders, satirists of newspaper folly, media nitwits, boys playing girls playing boys, and, if you are really good, girls playing boys playing girls. All of them bearing testament to Viola's immortal line: I am not what I am.

Item ID: 22555
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1757-1952
Keywords: paradox, comic, drama, art, double meaning, Shakespeare, Chesterton
Date Deposited: 30 Aug 2012 21:03
FoR Codes: 20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2001 Communication and Media Studies > 200101 Communication Studies @ 50%
22 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES > 2203 Philosophy > 220319 Social Philosophy @ 50%
SEO Codes: 97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970120 Expanding Knowledge in Language, Communication and Culture @ 50%
95 CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING > 9502 Communication > 950299 Communication not elsewhere classified @ 50%
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