Questions of the Foreigner: Metoikia and Democracy in Aeschylus’ Suppliants

IF 0.9 2区 历史学 0 CLASSICS CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY Pub Date : 2023-04-01 DOI:10.1525/ca.2023.42.1.49
Carol Dougherty
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Abstract

The question of the foreigner, especially as elaborated by Jacques Derrida in the first of his two essays Of Hospitality, is at the heart of Aeschylus’ Suppliants, a play in which the fifty daughters of the Egyptian king Danaus appeal to the Argive king Pelasgus for asylum. Indeed, Aeschylus structures much of the initial encounter between the Danaids and Pelasgus in the interrogatory mode: as an exchange of questions to the foreigner, of the foreigner. Beginning with queries about identity, the play moves quickly to pose questions about authority, ultimately running aground upon Pelasgus’ inability to decide what to do about these Egyptian-Argive women whose demands for hospitality threaten his control over the city. Where previous scholarship on the play has focused on its representation of foreignness or its introduction of democratic rule, a close reading in light of Derrida’s work on hospitality elaborates the important relationship between hospitality and democratic sovereignty that the play develops. For the real question of the foreigner asks how the people can wield power in a city; in response, the play imagines the origins of democracy as an act of civic hospitality or metoikia.
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外国人的问题:埃斯库罗斯补给品中的梅托伊基亚与民主
外国人的问题,尤其是雅克·德里达在他的两篇文章《好客》的第一篇中所阐述的,是埃斯库罗斯的《Suppliants》的核心,在这部剧中,埃及国王达瑙斯的五十个女儿向阿吉夫国王佩拉斯格斯请求庇护。事实上,埃斯库罗斯以审问的方式构建了达乃狄和佩拉斯格斯之间最初的相遇:作为对外国人和外国人的问题交换。该剧从对身份的质疑开始,迅速提出了对权威的质疑,最终因佩拉斯格斯无法决定如何处理这些埃及阿吉夫女性而搁浅,这些女性对好客的要求威胁到了他对城市的控制。此前对该剧的研究主要集中在对异国情调的表现或对民主统治的引入上,仔细阅读德里达关于好客的作品,可以阐述该剧发展起来的好客与民主主权之间的重要关系。因为外国人的真正问题是,人们如何在城市中行使权力;作为回应,该剧将民主的起源想象成一种公民热情好客的行为。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
1.10
自引率
20.00%
发文量
6
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