The Art and Artist’s Role in Confrontation with the Authority in Barker's Scenes from an Execution in Terms of Hegel’s Master-Slave Dialectic

This paper aims to discuss the concepts of “art” and “artist” in Barker's Scenes from an Execution based on Hegelian master/slave dialectic. Being accompanied with self-consciousness, recognition and experience, slavery brings about historical changes, freedom and reason -human essence achieved through historical revolution. The artist’s position in society is like the slave’s in the dependency/independency and bondage/lordship systems; he manipulates his art to transcend these binaries and reach to equilibrium where his art is not the manifestation of the will of the state but that of the nation mediated through the artist’s medium . Considering the will of the totalitarian governments and inflicting some manipulated truths for the government benefits against the artist’s will, Howard Barker (۱۹۴۶-) utilizes various ways to present the historical events and individuals’ reactions in his master-ruled society and to reach such an aim associated with Hegel's remarks on the world history as a scene of fluid existence. The representation of individuals’ conditions in community and individual-society interaction that makes the master/slave role and identity recognizable, help the researcher apply Hegel’s reflections on morality, human life and spirit to analyze the slave artists and their arts/roles versus the masters of their epochs. It also shows how the progress of history depends on slave’s labors and how the slaves directly or indirectly achieve mastery of the world by “self-consciousness,” and working on world. The unequal struggle between the powerful master and powerless slave causes the master’s temporary domination . However, the final domination belongs to the slaves because they recognize to limit their activities according to masters’ demands not to their own wills, and release themselves from this bondage through servitude, negation, cunningness, and controlling the world of science and arts.

Keywords:

art , artist , Hegel , master-slave dialectic , Barker , Scenes from an Execution