Vol.2, No 9, 2002 pp. 341 - 348
UDC 820.09-2
ALIENATED LIVES: HAVING AS A DEHUMANIZING
MODE
OF EXISTENCE IN CARYL CHURCHILL'S OWNERS
Nataša Tučev
University of Niš, Faculty of Philisophy
Marx's 'radical humanism', as presented in Erich Fromm's prominent study,
To Have or to Be, is reflected in his criticism of the capitalist system,
not only in terms of its social and economic aspects, but also in terms
of its devastating effects upon the human psyche. The capitalist system,
Marx and Fromm maintain, produces an impoverished human character dominated
by avarice and greed, which tends to alienate all the physical and intellectual
senses and replace them by the single sense of having. Instead of the myriad
of ways in which an individual can appropriate an object, or human reality
in general - such as by the faculty of senses, by thinking, feeling, observing,
acting or loving - only the utilitarian, materialistic form of appropriation
is considered relevant by the dominant Western mindset. Such a reduction
of meaningful human relations to the world is depicted in Caryl Churchill's
Owners. Churchill's characters' obsessive need to own - both objects and
other people - deprives their lives of deeper meaning and fulfilment, either
driving them into despair, madness and suicide, or turning their vitality
into destructiveness, compelling them to annihilate everything that cannot
be possessed. The paper also focuses on another common feature of Fromm's
study and Churchill's play, namely, their recourse to Buddhism, which for
both authors represents a system of thought diametrically opposed to the
spirit of capitalist society centred in property and egotism.
OTUĐENI ŽIVOTI: POSEDOVANJE KAO
TRAGIČNA OPSESIJA U SOPSTVENICIMA KERIL ČERČIL
U svojoj značajnoj studiji Imati ili biti, Erih From osvrće se na Marksa
kao na "radikalnog humanistu", čija se kritika kapitalizma ne odnosi samo
na društvene i ekonomske aspekte, već i na pogubni uticaj koji ovaj sistem
može imati na ljudsku psihu. I Marks i From, naime, smatraju da kapitalizam
formira osiromašenu ljudsku ličnost kojom dominira pohlepa, čiji su duhovni
i fizički potencijali otuđeni i svedeni na potrebu za posedovanjem. Iako
postoji mnoštvo načina na koje pojedinac može da prisvoji objekat svog
interesovanja, ili stvarnost uopšte - putem čula ili osećanja, razmišljanjem,
posmatranjem, delovanjem ili ljubavlju - za dominantnu kulturu Zapada merodavna
je samo utilitarna, materijalistička forma prisvajanja. Takva redukcija
smislenih ljudskih odnosa sa svetom predstavljena je u drami Sopstvenici
Keril Čerčil. Likovi ove drame ispoljavaju opsesivnu potrebu za posedovanjem
- objekata kao i ljudi - koja njihove živote lišava dubljeg značenja i
ispunjenja, terajući ih u očaj, ludilo i samoubistvo, ili pretvarajući
njihovu vitalnost u destruktivnost koja ih navodi da unište ono što ne
mogu imati. Rad takođe razmatra zajedničko interesovanje E. Froma i K.
Čerčil za budizam, koji za oba autora predstavlja filosofski sistem dijametralno
suprotan kapitalističkoj usredsređenosti na vlasništvo i egotizam.
