A Modern False Allegory: Sophocles’s Oedipus the King and Freud’s “Oedipus Complex”

Choonhee KIM

doi:10.22901/trans.2016.9.2.169

The Graeco-Roman thinkers and dramatists played a significant role in Europe, providing an important source of raw material for modern arts, science, and literature. Their influence in modern appropriation continued developing and postulating comparative relationships between the original, pre-existing objects and the newly adopted forms either in the same area or in an interdisciplinary one. In this article, I try to show a case which created distorted perceptions of comparative relationship in terms of appropriation: the Freudian theoretical formulation of the “Oedipus complex” based on Sophocles’s Oedipus the King within the framework of family relationships. Firstly, I examine how Freud formulated the metaphoric nature of oedipal concepts from a Greek tragedy to assume that his scientific field will have its ‘universal’ interpretive framework with respect to the “Oedipus complex” occurrence conditions of in-family relationships. Secondly, I’ll examine how Freud’s premise of the theory is misplaced in light of the Greek tragedy to demonstrate the analogy between the plot of Oedipus the King and his theoretical framework of psychoanalysis as inappropriate to be defined as scientifically “universal.” Finally, I’d argue that how this intercultural, interdisciplinary appropriation can be read as false analogy in which Freudian claims, defined as scientifically “universal,” are presented in an inappropriate context. Thus, a conclusion may be obtained for further possible arguments in the interpretation of the theory by looking at another facet of the problem: we discuss how the act of a Freudian formulation of the “Oedipus complex” may be observed in terms of human desire (“machines désirantes”).

Citation status

KCI Citation Counts (0)
REFERENCES (19)
열림/닫힘 버튼
* 2021년 이후 발행 논문의 참고문헌은 현재 구축 중입니다.

[book] Aristotle / 1995 / Aristotle: Poetics. Longinus: On the Sublime.Demetrius: On Style / Harvard UP

[book] Bergstein, Mary / 2010 / Mirrors of Memory: Freud, Photography, and the History of Art / Cornell UP

[book] Bloom, Harold / 2007 / Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex / Infobase Publishing

[book] Buxton, Richard / 1999 / From Myth to Reason?: Studies in the Development of Greek Thought / Oxford UP

[book] Deleuze, Gilles / 1973 / Capitalisme et Schizophrénie 1: L’Anti-OEdipe / Les Éditions de Minuit

[book] Freud, Sigmund / 1954 / Marie Bonaparte, Anna Freud, and Ernst Kris / Basic Books Inc.

[book] Freud, Sigmund / 1977 / The Interpretation of Dreams / Penguin Books

[journal] Gladston, Iago / 1954 / Sophocles Contra Freud: A Reassessment of the Oedipus Complex / The Bulletin 30(10) : 803~817

[journal] Jabbar, Wisam Kh. Abdul / 2012 / The Freudian Model of the Psyche in Two of Henry James’s Short Stories / Consciousness, Literature and the Arts 13(3) : 1~19

[journal] James, William / 1892 / What Psychical Research Has Accomplished / Forum 13 : 727~742

[book] Matthiessen, F. O. / 1961 / The Notebooks of Henry James / Oxford UP

[journal] Morgenstern, N. / 2003 / The Oedipus Complex Made Simple / University of Toronto Quarterly 72(4) : 777~788

[book] Most, Glenn W / 1999 / From Myth to Reason? / Oxford UP : 25~47

[book] Nussbaum, Martha C. / 1988 / Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex / Chelsea House Publishers : 155~182

[book] Onfray, Michel / 2010 / l’affabulation freudienne / Grasset

[journal] Smith, David L. / 2012 / The Jamesian Oedipus and the Freudian Moses: Image, Word, the Later Style, and The Ambassadors / Studies in the Novel 44(1) : 1~26

[book] Sophocles / 1984 / The Three Theban Plays / Penguin : 171~249

[book] Spector, Jack J / 1973 / The Aesthetics of Freud: A Study in Psychoanalysis and Art / Praeger Publishers

[book] Vernant, Jean-Pierre / 1990 / Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece / Zone Books

KJC Korea
Journal Central

Statistics

Tools

Sharing

Issue List

Citation status