As we know, Good Woman of Setzuan is one of Brecht's masterpieces. I analyze this
work from two theoretical perspectives. One is Freud, the other is Althusser and Baudrilliard.
In this work, Shen Te, the protagonist, is a young and kind woman. But ...
As we know, Good Woman of Setzuan is one of Brecht's masterpieces. I analyze this
work from two theoretical perspectives. One is Freud, the other is Althusser and Baudrilliard.
In this work, Shen Te, the protagonist, is a young and kind woman. But she does not know how to live in the real world. According to H. Sokel, she is in 'the imaginary state'. In order to live in the capitalistic world, she needs another self who is in 'the symbolic state'. Therefore she makes Shui Ta. Shui Ta, Shen Te's pseudo-self, is as cold as stone. He is a character appropriate for 'the symbolic world'. After all, he succeeds in his undertaking.
We can imagine characters of Good Woman of Setzuan as dialectic. Shen Te is 'thesis' and Shui Ta is 'anti-thesis'. Also we can expect the third self which did not come into being until. S/he comes from future as 'synthesis'.
In other aspect, we can read this work as a story of human(subject) warring against goodness(ideology). In the work, three gods(moral ideology) are incarnated into Shen Te. And then, Shen Te invents Shui Ta as a 'simulacre'. Shen Te emancipate herself from moral ideology and her dreadful identity through strategic 'simulation'.
On Althusser's theory of ideology, there is no subject free from ideology. But we may look forward to a new fighting strategy against ideology not under the rule of moral or of rationality but under the rule of simulation. Looking for a solution to human existence problem, we must keep exploring for not old ways, but new ways all the time.