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Passing resemblance : death, masks, and law’s theatrical inheritance
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Watt, Gary (2021) Passing resemblance : death, masks, and law’s theatrical inheritance. Law Text Culture, 25 . pp. 22-52.
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Official URL: https://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc/vol25/iss1/2/
Abstract
This article presents three case studies that are connected by their concern for the passing on of theatrical masks. The reference to ‘tradition’ in the title is an allusion to the Roman Law practice of traditio by which assets were passed hand-to-hand. Despite their very different theatrical contexts, we will see that the three case studies all suggest that the burden of the mask is most keenly felt when it is laden with the weight of tradition. What I mean by this is that each of the three theatrical masks needs to be passed on at some point in their story, and the moment the mask should be removed to new hands – the moment of its re-presentation – is the moment when, across all three cases, the burden of the mask becomes heaviest. I attribute this in part to a dynamic by which representations seem to breed new representations in something like the way that laws breed more laws and lies breed more lies. Once the maker has made something, we now have the artificer and the artefact – one has become two – and because the artefact has its own identity it will, in turn, make new things happen. There is therefore a sort of thickening or encumbering of representations. Perhaps this is the start of a theory, or perhaps it is just an observation, but if a similar dynamic operates in law, as I will seek to show it does, we will have the beginnings of a novel point of comparison between theatre and law, and one which would suggest that the law’s use of the metaphor of the persona – the actor’s mask – is not merely ornamental, but is indicative of something deeply felt in legal and theatrical arts of representation.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||
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| Subjects: | K Law [Moys] > KB General and Comparative Law K Law [Moys] > KZ Non-legal Subjects N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Culture and law, Law in art, Masks , Masks -- Law and legislation, Theatrical paraphernalia -- Law and legislation | ||||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Law Text Culture | ||||||||||
| Publisher: | Legal Intersections Research Centre | ||||||||||
| ISSN: | 1322-9060 | ||||||||||
| Official Date: | 2021 | ||||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 25 | ||||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 22-52 | ||||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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