The Dybbuk Between Several Worlds: Spectropolitics, the Demon, and the Devastation of the Future in Tony Kushner

Vanessa Cianconi

doi:10.35699/2317-2096.2026.61257

Auteurs

Vanessa Cianconi Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) | Rio de Janeiro | RJ | BR Auteur https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1175-4919

DOI :

https://doi.org/10.35699/2317-2096.2026.61257

Mots-clés :

Tony Kushner, A Dybbuk, Jewish lore, spectropolitics, Performance Philosophy, Walter Benjamin

Résumé

The dybbuk is a malevolent spirit that possesses the bodies of the living. Rooted in Jewish folklore and mysticism, the dybbuk is believed to be the soul of a dead person who cannot find rest. The purpose of this article is to reconcile Tony Kushner’s glimpse of apocalyptic anxiety in adapting S. Ansky’s text, The Dybbuk (2000). By placing ghostly characters on stage that echo the past and its resonance by bringing in a demon who now considers not only the claims of this past on the present, but also the historical devastations projected into the future, I look at Kushner’s play in light of the immateriality of its characters in relation to the uncanny experience of recognizing theater as the possibility of materializing a link between Sigmund Freud’s concern of the unfamiliar (or the unheimlich) and Walter Benjamin’s concern of experience.

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Biographie de l'auteur

Vanessa Cianconi, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) | Rio de Janeiro | RJ | BR

Vanessa Cianconi é professora de Literatura Norte-Americana no Departamento de Línguas e Literaturas Anglo-Germânicas da UERJ e também faz parte do corpo docente da pós-graduação em Literaturas de Língua Inglesa. Doutora em Literatura Comparada com período sanduíche no Departamento de Teatro da Universidade de Pittsburgh e pesquisa durante a Mellon School of Theater and Performance Research na Universidade de Harvard. Autora do livro “As bruxas como desculpa” (2014). Atualmente faz parte do GT “Dramaturgia e Teatro” da ANPOLL e do grupo de pesquisa “Escritos Suspeitos” ligado ao CNPq.

Références

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ANSKY, S. The Dybbuk or Between Two Worlds: A Dramatic Legend in Four Acts, in NEUGROSCHEL, The Dybbuk and the Yiddish Imagination: a haunted reader. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000.

BENJAMIN, Walter. Illuminations: essays and reflections. Translated by Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken Books, 2007.

BENJAMIN, Walter. One-Way Street. Translated by Edmund Jephcott and Kingsley Shorter. London: Verso, 1997.

BENJAMIN, Walter. The Origin of German Tragic Drama. Translated by John Osborne. London: Verso, 2003.

BRUCE, Scott G. (Eds). The Penguin Book of Demons. New York: Penguins Books, 2024.

FAIERSTEIN, Morris M. “The Dybbuk: The Origins and History of a Conception”. In: GREENSPOON, Leonard J. (eds.) olam he-zeh v’olam ha-ba: this world and the world to come in jewish belief and practice. Indiana: Purdue University Press, 2017.

KUSHNER, Tony. A Dybbuk and Other Tales of the Supernatural. Translated by Joachim Neogroschel. New York: Theater Communications Group, 2005.

MINOIS, George. Histoire de l’enfer. Paris: Presses Universitaires France, 2019.

MOORE, Avia. Unpacking a Production of The Dybbuk: An Artist’s Reflection. In: CAPLAN, Debra (eds.) The Dybbuk Century: the jewish play that possed the world. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2023.

NEUGROSCHEL, Joachim. Great Tales of Jewish Occult and Fantasy: the dybbuk and 30 other classic stories. New York, Wings Books, 1976.

NEUGROSCHEL, Joachim. The Dybbuk and the Yiddish Imagination: a haunted reader. New York: Syracuse University Press, 2000.

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SCHOLEM, Gershom. On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead: basic concepts in the kabbalah. Translated by Joacquim Neugroschel. New York: Schocken Books, 1991.

ŽIŽEK, Slavoj. Welcome to the Desert of the Real: five essays on september 11 and related dates. London: Verso, 2012.