Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


44401.pdf (2.9 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

"The 'Telemachus' Complex': Becoming Good Heirs on the Tragic Stage"

Cozzi, Cecilia
http://orcid.org/0009-0006-2337-2394
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1684771212933443

Abstract Details

2023, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Classics.
“The Telemachus Complex: Becoming Good Heirs on the Tragic Stage” applies to Greek tragedies psychoanalytic theory (the “Telemachus Complex” codified by Massimo Recalcati in response to Freud’s own Oedipal Complex). This framework explains inheritance as an “act of reclamation”: sons need to exercise an active role in negotiating the symbolic debt connecting them to their fathers. Their “movement forward” to reclaim their position stems primarily from an individual choice, which should neither dismiss or recreate the memory of father’s deeds. In the first chapter, I explore how Aeschylus shows the dangers of a firm rejection of the father’s example of political authority, as Xerxes demonstrates it in the aftermath of the battle of Salamis throughout the Persians. Next, I concentrate on Aeschylus’ Oresteia and argue that Orestes conceives of inheritance primarily as the need to claim his father’s wealth and position of power in Argos, following closely in Agamemnon’s footsteps, while the gods (Apollo, Athena) are reinforcing the leading role fathers exercise in their sons’ lives, In the second chapter, I investigate how Sophocles offers a different representation of this issue by looking at the ethical implications of a father’s example. I focus first on his earlier plays, where fathers impose on their offspring unquestioning obedience (Antigone) and the faithful imitation of their beliefs (Ajax, Trachiniae). These offspring (Ajax, Haemon and Hyllus) cannot deviate from their father’s norms, but they should rather conform to them. Sophocles progressively concentrates on the sons’ ability to go beyond the complete rejection and the passive duplication of fatherly examples. In the Electra and Philoctetes, Orestes and Neoptolemus offer the best embodiment of a successful heir mastering the “Telemachus Complex”: both these characters act upon their legacy, without being too attached to or too dismissive of their fathers’ deeds. The third chapter shows how filial agency emerges in all its complexity in Euripides. The dramatist shows the consequences of open rebellion, which conceals an intrinsic similarity between fathers and sons behind their apparent verbal divide (Hippolytus, Alcestis). Other plays point to the son’s flawed inspiration to recreate fatherly deeds, as Neopotlemus betrays this tendency in the Andromache, Hecuba. Next, I analyze how, in place of biological heirs, other characters can step up and offer to be social substitutes of these figures (as Theseus in Heracles and the Maiden in the Heracleidae). Last, I examine how in the plays on the Atreidae saga (Electra, Orestes) the issue of inheritance remains open-ended: the heir (Orestes) retrieves his standing and position, but he often needs external guidance and inputs, devoid of any agency. Ultimately, this project highlights how Greek drama offers a privileged look into the challenges that sons must face to be acknowledged as heirs in a psychoanalytical sense. On stage, offspring can rarely escape from the (neurotic) degenerations that inheritance entails: sons either limit themselves to the repetition of their father’s past or its firm rejection, while few can embrace their agency and avoid these two equally destructive alternatives.
Kathryn Gutzwiller, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Anna Conser, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Lauri Reitzammer, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Daniel Markovic, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Caitlin Hines, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
369 p.
Classical Studies
inheritance; psychoanalysis; tragedy; agency

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Cozzi, C. (2023). "The 'Telemachus' Complex': Becoming Good Heirs on the Tragic Stage" [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1684771212933443

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Cozzi, Cecilia. "The 'Telemachus' Complex': Becoming Good Heirs on the Tragic Stage". 2023. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1684771212933443.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Cozzi, Cecilia. ""The 'Telemachus' Complex': Becoming Good Heirs on the Tragic Stage"." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2023. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1684771212933443

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1684771212933443
510
© 2023, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License "The 'Telemachus' Complex': Becoming Good Heirs on the Tragic Stage" by Cecilia Cozzi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.