‘Alone’, ‘constant’ and ‘(in)visible’: Staging leadership in <i>Coriolanus</i>

Abstract

Italo Calvino’s propositions frame my approach to discussing the reception and interpretation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus today in the light of its inclusion in the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) school curriculum. I offer a dual-focus reading of Coriolanus that is informed by Gill Marcus’ notions of effective global leadership in the contemporary socio-economic climate intertwined with Brecht’s foregrounding of plebeian perspective and interests. The action of the play overtly confounds the ‘ideal leader’ described by Marcus through its dramatisation of a hero who is a model of volatility in expression, behaviour and allegiance. It nonetheless introduces complex considerations of relations between leader and collective inviting the twin focus of this paper. The agitating issues of radical socio-economic disparity and imperatives of economic and cultural transformation in South African suggest the importance of making theoretical formulations of dominance, authority and distinguishing between hero and leader. Drawing on Lucy Hughes-Hallett’s Heroes: Saviours, Traitors and Supermen (2004), I pursue three intertwined motifs that converge in the figure of the eponymous hero: mutability as an antithesis of the steadfastness and constancy which Coriolanus values; the tension generated between singularity and the state of being ‘alone’ in contrast to being situated within a collective (arguably a central motif of the play); and, finally, the degree to which visible presence as opposed to absence (or exile) impacts effective leadership. I conclude by arguing the merits of pursuing ‘lessons from Brecht’ to offer a template for reading the play (and its presentation) in a way that seeks out local correspondences.