Psychoanalysis, Philosophy and Myth in Contemporary Culture: After Oedipus

244 Pages·2017·2.32 MB·English

by  Angie Voela (auth.)

PSYCHOANALYSIS, PHILOSOPHY AND
MYTH IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE
AFTER OEDIPUS
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ANGIE VOELA
Studies in the Psychosocial
Series Editors
Stephen Frosh
Dept of Psychosocial Studies
Birkbeck, University of London
London, UK
Peter Redman
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The Open University
Milton Keynes, UK
Wendy Hollway
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The Open University
Milton Keynes, UK
Studies in the Psychosocial seeks to investigate the ways in which psychic
and social processes demand to be understood as always implicated in
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in the Psychosocial is also distinguished by its emphasis on affect, the irra-
tional and unconscious processes, often, but not necessarily, understood
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ogy, social and critical psychology, political science, postcolonial studies,
feminist studies, queer studies, management and organization studies,
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in the series will generally pass beyond their points of origin to generate
concepts, understandings and forms of investigation that are distinctively
psychosocial in character.
More information about this series at
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Angie Voela
Psychoanalysis,
Philosophy and Myth
in Contemporary
Culture
After Oedipus
Angie Voela
Watford, United Kingdom
Studies in the Psychosocial
ISBN 978-1-137-48346-1 ISBN 978-1-137-48347-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-48347-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017946321
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
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For Nikolas
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank friends and colleagues who have contributed to the
preparation of this book with invaluable feedback and helpful discus-
sions. Parts of this book began as a doctoral dissertation in Edinburgh, a
very long time ago. My thanks to my then supervisor, Gordon J Howie.
My gratitude to Maria Tamboukou, friend and mentor, for her unfailing
support. Thanks also to Chrysanthi Nigianni, Evi Sampanikou, Manya
Steinkoler, Jonathan Socrates, Claudia Lapping, Louis Rothschild,
Roberta Garrett, Diane Yeh, Lurraine Jones, and Cigdem Esin for
feedback on various chapters. I am grateful to my partner Prodromos
Sarigianis for his constant encouragement, and to my son Nikolas who
helped with everything, from bibliographical details to domestic chores,
especially during the last stages of writing. I dedicate this book to him.
He earned it.
vii
Contents
1 Introduction: Aporia, the Sphinx, and the Hope that
Life Will Make Sense 1
2 Ion’s Aporia: Just Another Oedipus? 41
3 Towards a New Anthropogony? Tron Revisited 73
4 Forget Antigone? 107
5 The Abyss of the Other’s Desire or Greek Myth
for (Neoliberal) Children 137
6 The Search for Origin in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus 183
7 Conclusion: Aporia, Commemoration, Paramythia 215
Bibliography 223
Index 233
ix
1
Introduction: Aporia, the Sphinx, and
the Hope that Life Will Make Sense
Whatever champions of contingency we might be, we cannot help
expecting with part of our mind that the world will make sense,
and feeling vaguely cheated if it does not.
(Eagleton 2003: 106)
There comes a moment when one needs to face up to one’s ignorance
and puzzlement, to one’s aporia. Such a moment, when everything is
thrown into disarray and questioned, determines the person one was, is,
and the person one is going to be. This aporia is a profound impasse, not
just a problem. It arises when meaning grinds to a halt and a step must
be taken, even against one’s best interest. The encounter strikes one as a
moment of terror. One comes out of it as other subject (Zupančič 2000:
235).
An impasse is related, on the one hand, to death, the limit condition of
being (Derrida 2008), and, on the other, to truth and knowledge, which
one man in antiquity—let’s call him Oedipus—could pursue rationally
in the realm of the Law-governed polis (city). Today, we may still con-
template mortality, or pursue truth and knowledge, but the horizon of
© The Author(s) 2017 1
A. Voela, Psychoanalysis, Philosophy and Myth in Contemporary Culture,
Studies in the Psychosocial, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-48347-8_1
2 1 Introduction
the inquiry, the scope of life, death, and desire, as well as the fabric of the
polis, have changed to such an extent that the most pertinent question
might not be ‘What is the truth?’ but ‘How will I recognise the truth
when I come across it?’. This question was not unknown to the contem-
poraries of Sophocles and Euripides. It was best captured by Euripides
in the extant play Ion, which never attracted Freud’s attention and never
acquired canonical status in psychoanalysis. Euripides formulates the
question in relation to a young slave, Ion, and his living father who
returns out of the blue, promising to restore his son to his rightful place.
The effect of this unexpected development and the impasse it creates are
no less frightening than the atē (fate) immortalised in the Sophoclean
play.
In contemporary culture, the motif of the return of the father has
gained unwavering popularity, becoming the vehicle for a host of cultural
concerns which join forces with the questions of truth and death. And we
know that when mythical and tragic figures are employed, the intention
usually is to try to express something universal about human nature.
In Tron Legacy (2010), the sequel to the 1980s’ popular science fic-
tion film Tron (1982), the return of the father chimes with the progress
of digital technology and the promise of immortality. The son (Sam)
is enticed into ‘Tron’, the virtual world of an old video game created
by the father (Flynn). The invitation seems to have originated from
the long-lost, presumed dead father. Inside the virtual world, Sam will
meet Quora, the last survivor of a digital species. Quora will bring Sam
to his ageing father. The three will plan their escape from the virtual
world, but only Sam and Quora make it out alive, bringing humanity
a radically new insight into the nature of the DNA and the promise of
immortality.
In Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (2010), the first book in a
very popular teenage fantasy series, the return of the Olympian father,
Poseidon, chimes with perceived post-9/11 threats against the West.
Poseidon claims young Percy as his son and instructs him to descend
to Hades to retrieve Zeus’ thunderbolt. The thunderbolt, symbol of
Olympian power, is coveted by the dark side, the insurgent Kronos. Percy
must accomplish his mission both in order to create a rapport with his
father and to ensure the continuation of Western civilisation.