Dissidence for Sinfield is the element in a text that seeks to contradict the dominant ideology of the text, or of the culture in which the text was produced (Sinfield agrees with Marx that these are the same thing). Subversiveness is similar, perhaps even identical in objective; the difference is that to be subversive, a text must be successful in its dissidence. For that reason, one must consult the historical impact of a text to determine whether it was subversive or merely dissident. In Othello, one could say that Othello was dissident in his challenge of racial assumptions, where Iago was subversive in overthrowing the hierarchy that supports Othello.
3.
In his article "The Breakdown of Medieval Hierarchy in King Lear," Alessandro Serpieri locates in the tension between the hierarchical system and those who are exiled or exile themselves from that system a mirror for the falling away of the traditional medieval worldview rooted in signs and symbols. In his interpretation of Lear, he finds this dissolution embodied in the...
The characters do not rail against the system, but instead give up their identity by not participating in it. For Kent, this is not a choice but a punishment from Lear. For Cordelia and for Lear, however, their exile from the system comes from their own decisions. Cordelia refuses to engage in the comparative semantics that her sisters so dramatically participate in, and therefore she silently dismantles the power of the system altogether. This more than anything is what infuriates her father.
Lear, on the other hand, negates the system in a much more tragic way. He seems unaware of the non-existence to which he is banishing himself, insisting that, in Serpieri's words, "though he is no longer king, he will be king" (5). The rest of the play documents his descent into madness as he comes to terms with the reality of his non-existence.
