CIVILITY VS SAVAGERY: MITIGATING VIOLENCE IN YASMINA REZA’S GOD OF CARNAGE

Authors

  • Eko Rujito Dwi Atmojo Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Indonesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21831/litlit.v2i2.638

Keywords:

civility, savagery, violence, human nature, God of Carnage

Abstract

Violence plays a central role in Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage,  a play that offers a profound look into human nature within the framework of today's society. The play reveals the underlying brutality masked by superficial politeness, showing how civilized behaviour can quickly descend into chaos. The study therefore aims to uncover the layers of violence and show how the characters mitigate the violence inherent in their nature. Through the interactions of two couples, the study shows that beneath their polite surfaces lies a primal instinct of aggression, suggesting that humans have an innate tendency towards violence. The characters' conflicts escalate from a seemingly trivial quarrel over their children to explosive confrontations that reveal deeper frustrations and anxieties. The work highlights the fragility of social etiquette, suggesting that politeness is merely a thin layer over inherent barbarism. Ultimately, God of Carnage assumes that violence is an integral part of human nature, reinforced by societal pressures and expectations. The work invites the audience to ponder the duality of human behaviour and ask whether true decency can fully restrain our violent impulses, or whether we are fundamentally ruled by our wild instincts.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Anholt, R. R. H., & Mackay, T. F. C. (2012). Genetics of aggression. Annu. Rev. Genet, 46, 145–164. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-genet-110711-155514

Ardrey, R. (1961). African genesis: A personal investigation in the animal origins and the nature of man. New York: Atheneum Books

Aristotle, A. (2009). Nicomachean ethics. Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics

Baumeister, R. F., & Bushman, B. (2015). Social psychology and human nature, (4th ed.). Mason: CENGAGE Learning Custom Publishing

Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L. (2004). “Symbolic violence” in Scheper-Hughes, N., & Bourgois, P. (eds), Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology. London: Blackwell

Breyer, D. (2019). Understanding the dark side of human nature. Virginia: The Great Courses

Bufacchi, V., & Gilson, J. (2016). The ripples of violence. Feminist Review, 112(1), 27-40. https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.2015.49

Camus, A. (2018). The myth of Sisyphus. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing

Carol, S. (2006). Blood and violence in early modern France, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Danielová, V. (2003). Darfur crisis of 2003: Analysis of the Darfur conflict from the times of first clashes to the present day, Ethnologia Actualis, 14(1), 27-59, https://intapi.sciendo.com/pdf/10.2478/eas-2014-0003

Dotson, K. (2011). Tracking epistemic violence, tracking practices of silencing. Hypatia, 26(2), 236–257. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23016544

Ferguson, R. B. (2013). “Pinker’s list: Exaggerating prehistoric war mortality” in Fry, D.P (ed). War, Peace, and Human Nature: the Convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 112-131. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199858996.001.0001

Fix, F. (ed.). (2010). Violence au théâtre. Paris: PUF

Fletcher, J. (2005). Violence and civilization: An introduction to the work of Norbert Elias. Cambridge: Polity. https://doi.org/10.2307/591328

Fourny, D. (1988). Literature of violence or literature on violence? The French enlightenment on trial author(s), SubStance, 27(2), 43-60, https://doi.org/10.2307/3685649

Fowlie, W. (1969). Climate of violence. The French literary tradition from Baudelaire to the present. London: Alison Press Book, Secker & Warburg

Frazer, E., & Hutchings, K. (2020). Violence and political theory, New York: Polity Press

Freud, S. (1950). Collected papers vol 5 (Strachey, J. (ed)). London: The Hogarth Press

Fry, D. P., & Söderberg, P. (2013). Lethal aggression in mobile forager bands and implications for the origins of war. Science 341(270), 270-273 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1235675

Gaber, M. (2006). The animal within: The conflicted self in Yasmina Reza’s The God of Carnage, Egyptian Journals, 65(1), 553-570, https://app.scinito.ai/article/W3048711991

Galtung, J. (2009). “Violence, peace and peace research” in Bufacchi, V. (ed), Violence: A Philosophical Anthology, New York: Palgrave Macmillan

Gooding, N., & Hoekstra, K. (2020). Hobbes and Aristotle on the foundation of political science in Douglas, R., & Olsthoorn, J. (eds), Hobbes’s On the Citizen: A Critical Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1-22

Hobbes, T. (2006). Leviathan (Tuck, T. (ed)). New York: Cambridge University Press

Huber, R. & Brennan, P. A. (2011). Aggression. Adv. Genet, 75, 1–6 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-380858-5.00016-2

International IDEA (2024). The war in Khartoum and its impact on Darfur, https://doi.org/10.31752/idea.2024.16

Jaccomard, H. (2016). The “business” of violence in Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage. French Forum, 41(3), 241-255, https://doi.org/10.1353/frf.2016.0030

Jones, M. (1994). Empowering victims of racial hatred by outlawing spirit murder. Australian Journal of Human Rights, 1(1), 299-327. http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/journals/AJHR/1994/19.html

Machiavelli, N. (2014). The prince (trans. Parks, T.). London: Penguin Books

Mardon, G., & Richardson-Self, L. (2022). Stuck in suffering: A philosophical exploration of violence. Australian Feminist Law Journal, 48(1), 113–136. https://doi.org/10.1080/13200968.2022.2088947

Mercier, T. C. (2020). Texts on violence: Of the Impure (contaminations, equivocations, trembling). Oximora, 17, 1-25, https://doi.org/10.1344/oxi.2020.i17.31566

Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldana, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook, Vol. 21, Issue 1. Sage Publication

Murphy, A. V. (2012). Violence and the philosophical imaginary. New York: State University of New York Press

Norman, R. (1995): Ethics, killing and war. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Oraldi, A. (2023). Human and non-human political animals: Aristotle’s “Metaphysical Biology” as the basis of political animality. Naturaliza y Libertad, 17(17), 141-161, https://doi.org/10.24310/NATyLIB.2023.vi17.16505

Padgett, J. K., & Trembley, P. F. (2020). “Gender difference in aggression” in Carducci, B.J. et al. (eds). The Wiley encyclopaedia of personality and individual differences: Models and theories. Wiley Publication, 173-177. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118970843.ch206

Pinker, S. (2011). The better angels of our nature: Why violence has decreased. London: Viking Penguin Press

Powell, A., & Henry, N. (2017). Sexual violence in a digital age. Palgrave Macmillan.

Reza, Y. (2010). God of carnage (trans. Christopher Hampton). New York: Dramatists Play Service

Richardson-Self, L. (2021). Hate speech against women online: Concepts and countermeasures. London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Schopenhauer, A. (1966). The world as will and representation (trans. Payne, F. F. J.). New York: Dover Publication

Sung, W. (2016). Mencius and Xunzi on Xing (Human Nature). Philosophy Compass, 11(11), 632–641. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12363

Spivak, G. C. (1988). “Can the Subaltern speak?’ in Nelson, C., & Grossberg, L. (eds), Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, 66-111. London: Macmillan Education

Sussman, R. W. (2013). Why the legend of killer ape never dies in Fry, D. P (ed). War, peace, and human nature: The convergence of evolutionary and cultural views. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 97–111 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199858996.001.0001

Tartaglia, J. (2017). Nihilism and the meaning of life (Moroika, M. (ed)). Saitama: Journal of Philosophy of Life

Ury, W. L. (ed.) (2002). Must we fight? From the battlefield to the schoolyard – A new perspective on violent conflict and its prevention. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Whitlock, T. (2014). “Masculinities and crime in historical perspective”. In Gartner, R. & McCarthy, B. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Gender, Sex, and Crime, Oxford Handbooks Online, 1–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118970843.ch206

Wrangham, R. W., & Glowack, L. (2012). Intergroup aggression in chimpanzees and war in nomadic hunter-gatherers: Evaluating the chimpanzee model, Hum Nat, 23(1), 5-29. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-012-9132-1

Downloads

Published

2024-10-31

Issue

Section

Articles

Categories

Similar Articles

1 2 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.