Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 M.A in Drama, Faculty of Arts, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
2 (Corresponding Author). Assistant Professor of Drama, Collage of Arts, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Conducting comparative literary studies is one of the essential subjects and approaches in literature nowadays. American school of comparative literature provides a suitable framework for research on themes, opinions, and hidden concepts of works irrespective of their original language. In this article, we compare the play An Eye for an Eye, by an Iranian playwright Gholam Hossein Saedi, and The Tempest by a French Black writer and poet Aime Cesaire. This research, by using the American school of comparative literature and by drawing from Foucault's theories, scrutinizes the similarities and differences between these two plays. In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Foucault explains various governments' methods of punishment throughout history. People in power, by using their own approved system of thoughts and punishments, put common people of society under pressure, and chastise them. Foucault does not necessarily think these punishments are deterrent or adequate to the crime committed by a criminal, yet his/her body is used as a penal and correctional system. It will be examined that in these two cases the kings’ presence as the highest member of power is the only determinant of punishment. The absence of a judiciary system in both plays highlights the fact that much of the government's actions are baseless and biased. In An Eye for an Eye, the dominant system prefers corporal punishments whereas in The Tempest it privileges the mental/psychological one. Foucault believes that dominant institutions sometimes use punishment for its dramatic nature in order to intimidate people. This nature of punishment is represented and noticeable in both of our selected plays.
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