For our 8th event this term, we will be watching and discussing Pier Paolo Pasolini's {Oedipus Rex}, which is available on youtube.
For one of his first colour films, Pasolini chose to revive Œdipus. Contra certain interpretations, Pasolini presents œdipus' complex not as the result of the inexorable whims of divine fate, but made up by bound-up agonism and desire his parents invest in him. Yet, because the family is and can only be the private level upon which culture operates, the oedipus complex is in fact the necessary product of a society actually structured around the creation of such a psychic dynamic. The oedipus complex as specific, materially and sociohistorically grounded psychic condition inflicted upon a child by its parents as part of a broader social order which centrally operates by controlling and (re)routing desire.
Pasolini, most importantly, masterfully uses cinematic technique to illustrate his point. Defamiliarising Greece and the original myth, and smashing the plot through space and time, showing us through different instances the concrete particularities of how each time constructs Œdipus.
“Only Marxism can give us an adequate account of the essential mystery of the cultural past, which, like Tiresias drinking the blood, is momentarily returned to life... & allowed once more to... deliver its long forgotten message in surroundings utterly alien to it.” (Jameson)
"What produces history is the relationship of hatred and love between father and son./... That is the thing in Sophocles that inspired me the most: the contrast between total innocence and the obligation to know. It wasn't so much the cruelty of life that produces crimes, but the fact that these crimes are done because people don't try to understand history, life and reality." (Pasolini)
This will certainly be more laidback - we welcome everyone for this unique event.
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Room: 3.320 @ 6pm
As always, we will reconvene in Top Bar afterwards:)
Attendance is open to all, free of charge, as per usual!!
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