Appadurai's Risk, Posthumus' Loss

Although the lecture was interrupted several times because of the bad quality video call, there were some points that I was able to take away from Appadurai’s talk.

One of his main points was that everyone in a capitalist economy is linked together through risk. Some people, or the ”1%”, are the risk takers and the large players in the capitalist economy whom are taking the majority of the risk. Most people are the risk bearers or the “99%” whom are used to absorb the inevitable periods of loss in which risk is taken. 

Those who will take risk and come out losing, thus ending up in debt to those who will benefit from the risk, are caught in a trap in which risk is monetized. This debt can come from many sources such as healthcare, student and schooling debt, and housing payment debt. When consumers take risk and lose, they tend to continue to try to take risk in order to get ahead and generally end up worse off than before, caught in a vicious risky cycle.

This idea of constant risk can be applied especially to Cymbeline, in which we see Posthumus’ risk in betting Giacomo on his wife’s fidelity. In a strange way, Posthumus stands in as a symbol of the risk taker, betting the ring against Giacomo and losing. Imogen and Pisanio stand in as risk bearers in that they have to deal with the aftereffect of Posthumus’ loss, but not so much with a monetary loss, but more against the behavioral effect. They have to deal with the sudden personality change and his plotting to kill Imogen, and ensnaring Pisanio in the process. This order to kill Imogen leads to multiple scenes of discomfort and fear, evidenced by Imogen’s retreat into the unknown wilderness, and Pisanio’s betrayal of the man he serves.