MENNESKELIG HANDLING: Illusionen som dramatisk grundvilkår

Abstract

Taking the point of departure in the world of

Shakespeare and his players, it is argued that

illusion has nothing to do with deception or

delusion. Rather it is seen as a suspense of

form, a waiting for the fulfilment of the plot.

This view is extended to the social world in

general, where an illusion of wholeness and

plot is also a precondition for action: without

a sense of context, no one can act adequately.

Players of Shakespeare are double agents, in

that they have to act as both actor and

character; again, it is argued that human

agency is always a kind of double agency,

requiring an awareness of both one’s own

practical skills and the entire social drama in

which one participates. In short, both on and

off stage, acting in character means abiding

to an over-all illusion about a whole that is

but suspended form.