The Peasants' Revolt and the Writing of History in 2 Henry VI | I. Writing as Substitution
I. Writing as Substitution
In 2 Henry VI, writing retains the power of the dominant culture even when the political structure is on the verge of collapse. Jacques Derrida helps us understand the phenomenon when he writes that in the logocentric structure of representation, the "central presence" cannot be recovered because it "has never been itself, has always already been exiled from itself into its own substitute."16 He adds, "the substitute does not substitute itself for anything which has existed before it" (p. 280). The implications of such substitutions become apparent when one compares the play to its sources.
Images of writing do not figure prominently in the play's sources. Two examples illustrate how Shakespeare went beyond his sources to underscore the connection between writing and power: the episodes involving Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester and those involving Suffolk's handling of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou's...
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