This course is a two-quarter research seminar. It is restricted to graduate students, and credit can only be offered for students who complete both quarters. The theme deals with a set of fundamental ways that the dynamics of the self have been thought about in the twentieth century. Central to our way of reading Oedipus is, of course, FreudÆs interpretation of the Greek myth. The power of his reading and the many variations on and challenges to it have to do with fundamental ways that observers view the relationship between the family and personality development: critics are divided on whether the historical development of the family has any relevance for the process of constructing the self and whether the self itself can have a history. Any history of the self should not be narrowly construed. In this case, we shall be dealing with issues of conscience, self-reflection and self-knowledge, guilt, shame, sin and transgression, will, desire, atonement, law, pollution, incest, blood and kinship, individual and community, individual/community/God, freewill and fate. Various aspects of these problems have been explored in a series of seminars over the past several years: ôThe History of Individualism,ö ôThe Body in History,ö ôIdentity and Subjectivity,ö and ôEgodocuments.ö Copies of the syllabi for these courses will be made available to students.

During the Winter quarter, we will read a series of texts beginning with the Sophoclean tragedies. Since FreudÆs interpretation is so determinate for any discussion today, we will go immediately to several of his important texts. We will then step back and read variations on Oedipus from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Then we will look at variant readings in the twentieth century, feminist critiques of the Freudian version, and attempts to consider Oedipus for the non-Western world. We will also read widely in the secondary literature, giving substantial time to debate about the Sophoclean texts themselves. We will also look at several versions of Oedipus on stage, film, and opera. Each session will be composed of two parts: A) discussion of a book assigned to all participants; B) a report by one or two of the participants on a particular issue. The Spring quarter will be devoted to discussion of research papers presented by students.

Books listed below with an * are available in the bookstore and should be purchased for the course. If books do not come in on time, they may be purchased on line through Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com. The rest will be on reserve in the Graduate Reserve Room in the YRL.

Week 1. Introduction

Film: Oedipus, the play

Week 2. The Ancient Texts

Assignment

Sophocles, Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus in *The Three Theban Plays, ed. Bernard Knox, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin: Harmondsworth, 1984

Seneca, Oedipus, in *Four Tragedies and Octavia, trans. and intro. E.F. Watling (Penguin: Harmondsworth, 1966)
 
 

Week 3. Freud and the Psychoanalytic Appropriation

Part A: Assignment

Freud, Interpretation of Dreams (1900)(selections), *The Ego and the Id (1923) (Norton), ôFemale Sexualityö (1931), *Civilization and its Discontents (1930) (Norton)

Part B: Reading Freud

Marie Balmary, Psychoanalysing Psychoanalysis: Freud and the Hidden Fault of the Father (Baltimore, 1982) Biomed WZ100 F895BAL 1982 Hist Div

Ernest Jones, Hamlet and Oedipus (Garden City, 1954) College PR2807 J71h 1954; URL PR 2807 J71h 1976

Peter Rudnytsky, Freud and Oedipus (NY, 1987), Biomed WM49 R916f 1987; URL BF175.5 O33 R83 1987

Moustafa Safouan, *tudes sur lÆoedipe: introduction * une th*orie du sujet (Paris, 1974) UCB Main BF175 .S181 1974

Cynthia Chase, ôOedipal Textuality: Reading FreudÆs Reading of Oedipus, in Diacritics 9:4 (1979), pp. 54-68

Entertainment to be arranged:

One of these versions of Pasolini:

Videorecording. Pier Paolo Pasolini, ôEdipo reö (original uncut version, letter box) (NY, Walter Bearer Films, 1990). Original 1967. UCR Media 1690 Video Tape

Videorecording, ôOedipus Rexö [Pasolini] (Remastered version, Arco Film Italy, 1967, Water Bearer Films, 1990) UCB Media Ctr Video/C 999:1677

Pier Paolo Pasolini, Oedipus Rex; a Film, [Script] trans. Y, 1971) Arts PN1997 E23 P26E; URL PN 1997 E23 P26E
 
 

Week 4. Readings under Absolutism

Part A: Assignment

Corneille, Oedipe, in Oeuvres, vol. 6 (Paris 1862) URL: PQ1741 1862 v. 6

Racine, La Th*ba*de (Paris, 1965) URL: PQ1900 A5 F26

Part B:Monarchy and Oedipus

Christian Biet, Oedipe en monarchie: trag*die et th*orie juridique * lÆ*ge classique (Paris, 1994) PQ563 B54 1994

Walther Brack, Der Oedipe von Corneille und der des Voltaire, verglichen mit dem Oedipus Rex des Sophokles (Borna-Leipzig, 1914) SRLF AA0004437711

Mitchell Greenberg, Canonical States, Canonical Stages: Oedipus, Othering, and Seventeenth-Century Drama URL: PN1831 G74 1994
 
 

Week 5. Enlightenment Readings

Part A: Assignment

John Dryden and Nathaniel Lee, Oedipus: A Tragedy (1735), in The Work of John Dryden, vol. 13 (Berkeley, 1984) URL: PR3410 F56 v. 13

Voltaire, Oedipe, trag*die (1729), in Oeuvres compl*tes de Voltaire, vol. 2 (4th ed: Paris, 1928) URL: PQ2070 1825 v. 2. There is an English version of the play that will be placed on reserve.

Note that there is an edition of contemporary comment on VoltaireÆs Oedipe. The volume will be placed on reserve.

Part B: Interpretations of Sophocles

Marie Delcourt, Oedipe ou la l*gende du conqu*rant (Li*ge, 1944) URL: PA3015 R5025 1981

Jean-Pierre Vernant and Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Tragedy and Myth in Ancient Greece (Brighton, 1981) URL: PA3131 V43

____________. Mythe et trag*die en Gr*ce ancienne, vol. 2 (Paris, 1986) URL: PA3131 V4 1972 v. 1 (English version: College PA3131 V413 1990)

____________. Myth and Society URL: DF78 V594 mE 1980

____________. Entre Mythe et politique URL: BL50 V44 1996

Jean-Pierre Vernant, Oedipe et ses mythes URL: BL820 O43 V471 1988

Egon Flaig, Oeidpus: Tragischer Vatermord im klassischen Athen (M*nchen, 1998) UCB Main PA 4413 .O7 F49 1998

Entertainment to be arranged:

Igor Stravinsky, Oedipus Rex; Le Rossignol (Paris, 1996). [libretto] French trans. by Cocteau; Latin by Jean Dani*lou (Paris, 1996) UCB ML410 .S932 O35 1996

Igor Stravinsky, Oedipus Rex. The RakeÆs Progress. Libretto. Polyglot (NY, 1991) Music ML 49 S77 O32 1991

Videorecording. Igor Stravinsky, Oedipus Rex Opera-Oratoria in Two Acts after Sophocles (text Jean Cocteau) (Chicago, Home Vision, 1985) UCSD FVL FVLV 2783-1 Controlled circulation
 
 

Week 6. Twentieth-Century Readings I

Part A: Assignment

Jean Anouilh, Oedipe, ou, Le Roi boiteux: dÆapr*s Sophocle (Paris, 1986) PQ2601 A61 O4

Andr* Gide, Two Legends: Oedipus and Theseus (New York, 1950)

Part B: More Interpretations of Sophocles

Frederick Ahl, SophoclesÆ Oedipus: Evidence and Self-Conviction (Ithaca, 1991) PA4413 O7 Z5a

Bernard Knox, Oedipus at Thebes: SophoclesÆ Tragic Hero and His Time (New Haven, 1998) URL: PA3313 O7 Z5K
 
 

Week 7. Twentieth-Century Readings II

Part A: Assignment
Jean Cocteau, La Machine infernale, in *The Infernal Machine and Other Plays, trans. Albert Bermel (New Directions, 1963) (London, 1971) UCR PQ2605 .O15 M33 1971

(see: Marie Jejcic, Le Savoire du po*te: Oedipe selon Jean Cocteau (Seuil: 1996)) UCR Rivera PQ2605 .O15 Z68675 1996
 
 

Part B: Even More Interpretations of Sophocles

Jean Joseph Goux, Oedipus, Philosopher (Stanford, 1993) B% 175.5 O33 G6813 1993

Entertainment to be arranged:

Nathan Kroll, Night Journey [A presentation of Martha GrahamÆs interpretation in dance of the Oedipus legend] (Phoenix films, 1961) UCR Media 77 Motion Picture

Week 8: A Critique of Desire

Part A: Assignment

Gilles Deleuze and F*lix Guattari, *Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (NY, 1977) ( U. of Minnesota Pr.) Biomed WM 460 D378a 1977; URL RC455 D378aE; College RC 455 D378aE 1983; EngReadRm RC455 D378aE 1983; URL RC455 D378aE 1983

Part B: Against Oedipus

Janine Chassequet-Smirgel, Les chemins de lÆanti-Oedipe (Toulouse, 1974) BF175 C387c

________________. Wege des Anti-Oedipus (Frankfurt, 1986) BF175 .C4715 1986

Eleanor Kaufman and Kevin Jon Heller, eds., Deleuze & Guattari: New Mappings in Politics, Philosophy, and Culture (,Minneapolis, 1998) B2430 D454 D397 1998

Brian Massumi, A UserÆs Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Deviations from Deleuze and Guattari (Cambridge MA, 1992) Biomed WM30.6 M422u 1992
 
 

Week 9. Feminist critiques of psychoanalytic readings

Part A: Assignment

Juliet Mitchell, Psychoanalysis and Feminism (New York, 1974) URL HQ1206 M694 p1974

Part B: The Relevance of Oedipus for Women

J.C. Smith and Carla J. Ferstman, The Castration of Oedipus: Feminism, Psychoanalysis and the Will to Power (NYU Press) URL: BF175.4 F45 S65 1996

Michael John OÆBrien, Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex (Englewood Cliffs, 1968) College PA4413 O7Z 5o; URL PA 4413 O7 Z5o

Christiane Olivier, JocastaÆs Children: The Imprint of the Mother (London, 1989) BF175 O4313 1989

Madelon Sprengnether, The Spectral Mother: Freud, Feminism, and Psychoanalysis (Ithaca, 1990) BF175 S643 1990

Humberto Nagera, Female Sexuality and the Oedipus Complex (NY, 1975) Biomed BF 692 N134f; Biomed BF 692 N134f 1975

Entertainment to be arranged:

One of the following:

Videorecording. Oedipus the King, trans. Don Taylor, BBC co-production (Princeton: Films for the Humanities, 1988) UCB Media Ctr Video/C 1144

Videorecording. The Rise of Greek Tragedy. Sophocles, Oedipus the King (Princeton, Films for the Humanities, 1975) UCB Media Ctr Video/C 991

Motion Picture. Oedipus the King [Omnibus. 1957-01-06. TV-Radio Workshop of the Ford Foundation] Film TV A11-1662. Research Copy. Viewing on premises only.
 
 

Week 10. Oedipus and Anthropology

Part A: Assignment

Melford E. Spiro, *Oedipus in the Trobriands (Chicago, 1982) (Transactions) College GN671 N5 S64 1982; URL GN671 N5 S64 1982 and Meyer Fortes, Oedipus and Job in West African Religion (Cambridge, 1959) College BL 2480 T14 F7; URL BL 2480 T14 F7 1981; URL BL 2480 T14 F7 1984

Part B: The Relevance of Oedipus for the Non-Western World

Bronislaw Malinowski, Sex and Repression in Savage Society (Chicago, 1985) College HQ504 M29s 1985; URL GN671 N5 M346 1985

Ernest Jones, ôMother-Right and the Sexual Ignorance of Savages,ö in International Journal of Psychoanalysis 6 (1925), pp. 109-130

M. F. Ashley Montagu, ed., Marriage, Past and Present: A Debate between Robert Briffault and Bronislaw Malinowski (Boston, 1956) URL: HQ728 B76m

Edward Westermarck, Three Essays on Sex and Marriage (London, 1934) UCB Main: HQ21 .W67

_____________. A Short History of Marriage (NY, 1926) URL: HQ503 W52S

_____________. Marriage (London, 1929) UCSB Main: HQ503 .W66 1929a Spec. Coll.

More Dramas, Films, Music, Operas

Lee Breuer, The Gospel at Colonus (adaptation and original lyrics by Lee Breuer) (NY, 1989) PS3552 B756g

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Oedipus in Kolonus (Vocal score, London, 18--) Music.SpC M1513 M52a 1800z

Wolfgang Rihm, Oedipus [Libretto] (Santa Fe, 1991) Music ML50 R5813 O32 1991

Nicolas Fran*ois Guillard, Oedipe * Colone, op*ra en trois actes (1786). Music by Sacchini SRLF: A0002607760
 
 

Supplemental