عنوان

Oedipus and the Sphinx :

(Number (ISBN

022604808X (cloth : alkaline paper)

(Number (ISBN

9780226048086 (cloth : alkaline paper)

Erroneous ISBN

9780226048116 (e-book)

Number

dltt

Title Proper

Oedipus and the Sphinx :

General Material Designation

[Book]

Other Title Information

the threshold myth from Sophocles through Freud to Cocteau /

First Statement of Responsibility

Almut-Barbara Renger ; translation by Duncan Alexander Smart and David Rice, with John T. Hamilton

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

vi, 126 pages :

Other Physical Details

illustrations ;

Dimensions

23 cm

Text of Note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 113-122) and index

Text of Note

When Oedipus met the Sphinx on the road to Thebes, he did more than answer a riddle - he spawned a myth that, told and retold, would become one of Western culture's central narratives about self-understanding. Identifying the story as a threshold myth - in which the hero crosses over into an unknown and dangerous realm where rules and limits are not known - Oedipus and the Sphinx offers a fresh account of this mythic encounter and how it deals with the concepts of liminality and otherness. Almut-Barbara Renger assesses the story's meanings and functions in classical antiquity - from its presence in ancient vase painting to its absence in Sophocles's tragedy - before arriving at two of its major reworkings in European modernity: the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud and the poetics of Jean Cocteau. Through her readings, she highlights the ambiguous status of the Sphinx and reveals Oedipus himself to be a liminal creature, providing key insights into Sophocles's portrayal and establishing a theoretical framework that organizes evaluations of the myth's reception in the twentieth century. Revealing the narrative of Oedipus and the Sphinx to be the very paradigm of a key transition experienced by all of humankind, Renger situates myth between the competing claims of science and art in an engagement that has important implications for current debates in literary studies, psychoanalytic theory, cultural history, and aesthetics. -- Publisher

Cocteau, Jean,1889-1963-- Knowledge-- Mythology

Freud, Sigmund,1856-1939-- Knowledge-- Mythology

Oedipus

Oedipus-- In literature

Sophocles., Oedipus Rex

Mythology, Greek-- Appreciation

Sphinxes (Mythology)

Sphinxes (Mythology) in literature

Class number

Book number

Renger, Almut-Barbara

Hamilton, John T.

Rice, David G., (David Gerard),1945-

Smart, Duncan

Date of Transaction

20150519093153.0

Cataloguing Rules (Descriptive Conventions))

rda

Electronic name

[Book]

Y