第九週指導老師：鄭惠芳教授

教育部現代公民核心能力課程計畫: 西洋經典選讀Introduction to Western Classics 第九週指導老師：鄭惠芳教授

第9週的課程內容規劃 《哈姆雷特》和伊底帕斯情結 Hamlet and Oedipus Complex 介紹文學批評史中《哈姆雷特》與奧國心理分析大師佛洛伊德的跨領域連結。簡短觀看[Discovery偉大之書系列]佛洛伊德的夢的解析[DVD] Great Books: Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams。

討論主題: • 討論主題: 1.《哈姆雷特》中呈現的親屬倫理關係與其以伊底帕斯情結詮釋的趣味及廣受爭議的合理性。 2. 佛洛伊德的伊底帕斯情結與倫理的衝突 2. 心理學與文學中的家庭倫理

參考書籍 • Freud, Sigmund. • The Interpretation of Dreams. Translated by A. A. Brill. New York: Modern Library, 1994

參考書籍 • 2. Stearns, Marshall W. “Hamlet and Freud.” • College English 10.5 (Feb. 1949): 265-72. • Searle, Leroy F. “The Conscience of the King: • Oedipus, Hamlet and the Problem of Reading.” • Comparative Literature 49.4 (1997): 316-43. • 4. Holland, Norman N. “Freud on Shakespeare.” • PMLA 75.3 (1960): 163-73. • 5. Weller, Philip. “Freud’s Footprints in Films of • Hamlet.” Literature Film Quarterly 25.2 (1997): • 119-24.

觀看[Discovery偉大之書系列] 佛洛伊德的夢的解析[DVD] Great Books: Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams (20 minutes) Pay attention to * Freud’s background * Oedipus complex

Oedipus Complex • Let’s learn about Oedipus first • Oedipus the King • (ancient Greek: Oidipous Tyrannos; Latin title Oedipus Rex) • Greek tragedy by Sophocles • around 430 BC

Oedipus--King of Thebes • Laius--King of Thebes • Queen Jocasta • Oracle—the child would kill his father • Oedipus becomes (adopted) son of King Polybus of Corinth • Oracle • Oedipus leaves Corinth

A deadly pestilence • Creon, Jocasta's brother, returns with an oracle: Laius' murderer should be banished from the city • Tiresias, blind seer

Jocasta retells an old prophecy--her son should kill his father • Oedipus who thought he was son of King Polybus of Corinth has killed his father and married his mother. He even fathered children by his incestuous marraige.

To see or not to see • Oedipus solves the riddle of the Sphinx: "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?“ • Tiresias, blind seer, sees • Oedipus has eyes but can’t see • Oedipus blinds himself

Greek Myth and New Fame • Famous Greek play • New attention brought by Freud around the beginning of 20th century

Picture of Freudfrom Wikipedia

Introduction to Freud • Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939), • An Austrian neurologist and psychologist • Founder of psychoanalysis • Freud developed theories about the unconscious and repression • Psychoanalysis was made into a treatment by using conversation or communication between a patient and a psychoanalyst.

Superego • Ego • Id

A book for the 20th century? • The Interpretation of Dreams • Publication year: 1899 • Publication year: 1900 in the book

Unconscious and One’s Life • Repressed sexual drive • Trauma—past and present

Excerpt from The Interpretation of Dreams • Shakespeare’s Hamlet is rooted in the same soil as Oedipus Rex. But the whole difference in the psychic life of the two widely separated periods of civilization, and the progress during the course of time, of repression in the emotional life of humanity, is manifested in the differing treatment of the same material. In Oedipus Rex the basic wish-phantasy of the child is brought to light and realized as it is in dreams; in Hamlet it remains repressed, and we learn of its existence—as we discover the relevant facts in a neurosis—only through the inhibitory effects which proceed from it. (163)

Freud’s Explanation of Hamlet’s Inaction • Claudius, “who did away with his [Hamlet’s] father and has taken his father’s place with his mother” is “the man who shows him [Hamlet] in realization the repressed desires of his own childhood” (164).

Ernest Jones (1879 – 1958) • First English to practice psychoanalysis • Founder and president in the 1920s and 1930s of British Psycho-Analytical Society. • Active and influential in the • International Psychoanalytic Association. • Picture from Wikipedia

Jones—Wizard of Freud • Jones was biographer of Freud • Maddox, Brenda was biographer of Jones. Maddox called Jones “Freud’s wizard” Book: Brenda Maddox, Freud’s Wizard: Ernest Jones and the Transformation of Psychoanalysis. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo P, 2006.

Mainstream? • Oedipus complex: mainstream interpretations for Shakespeare’s Hamlet since the twentieth century • Marshall W. Stearns wrote in his 1949 paper: “The large group of critics who are loosely termed ‘Shakespearean scholars’ are virtually united in ignoring Freud’s forty-nine-year old comments on Hamlet as well as the more recent developments in the field of psychoanalysis” (265). He argues that “The time is passing when a critic of literature in general and of Hamlet in particular can win the respect of an intelligent audience by refusing to deal with Freudian thought” (265).

Detour? • Leroy F. Searle says that Hamlet’s Oedipal nature is only a “detour’ much “traveled” (325).

Chinese Reception of Freud • According to a contemporary Chinese scholar, Wang Ning, in “Confronting Western Influence: Rethinking Chinese Literature of the New Period” (published in Autumn 1993), even though Freud’s theory had influence in China after its first introduction in the early twentieth century, due to “political and ideological” reasons, it was “silent” in China from 1949 to 1978, and even “severely criticized.” • From: Ning, Wang. “Confronting Western Influence: Rethinking Chinese Literature of the New Period.”New Literary History 24.4 (Autumn 1993): 905-26. • Ning Wang is Dean of Comparative Literature and Cutural Research Institute,Tsinghua University and Professor of the Department of Foreign Languages, Tsinghua University.

Reinterpret the Closet scene: Act 3 Scene 4 • SCENE IV. The Queen's closet. • Enter QUEEN Gertrude and POLONIUS LORD POLONIUS He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,And that your grace hath screen'd and stood betweenMuch heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.Pray you, be round with him.HAMLET [Within] Mother, mother, mother!

QUEEN GERTRUDE I'll warrant you,Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.POLONIUS hides behind the arras • Enter HAMLET • HAMLET Now, mother, what's the matter?QUEEN GERTRUDE Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.HAMLET Mother, you have my father much offended.

QUEEN GERTRUDE Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.HAMLET Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.QUEEN GERTRUDE Why, how now, Hamlet!HAMLET What's the matter now?QUEEN GERTRUDE Have you forgot me?HAMLET No, by the rood, not so:You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;And--would it were not so!--you are my mother.

QUEEN GERTRUDE Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.HAMLET Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;You go not till I set you up a glassWhere you may see the inmost part of you.QUEEN GERTRUDE What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?Help, help, ho!LORD POLONIUS [Behind] What, ho! help, help, help!HAMLET [Drawing] How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!Makes a pass through the arras

Interpretation of the scene • Hamlet is rude to his mother. • Hamlet does not like the Queen’s second marriage? • Hamlet thinks the man behind the arras is Claudius? • Hamlet is hesitant most of the time. Olivier’s movie says Hamlet is a man of “inaction.” But this is the one time that he kills on impulse. • Is the rudeness and the impulsive act signs of Hamlet’s Oedipus complex?

Questions to PonderDiscussion: 15 minutes Character Analysis 1. Is Hamlet an admirable character? How would you interpret his “to be or not to be” line. Is he a man incapable of action? Is he a filial son who is troubled deeply by the ghost’s words?

Women in the Play • 2. Is Gertrude to be blamed for her hasty marriage? Is the marriage an incest? Why nobody is against the marriage except Hamlet? If a widower remarries . . .

Revenge and Ethics • 3. What is the relationship between Hamlet’s revenge and ethics? Consider the duty of a filial son. Consider Hamlet’s position as a usurped prince. Consider Hamlet’s relationship to his mother. The person he targets is his stepfather.

An Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth: negative influence? • 4. Is Hamlet propagating the idea of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth? Consider whether the play is the play endorsing violence.

Scapegoats • 5. Who are the scapegoats in the play and what you do think about them?

Alternative Perspectives • 6. From your perspective, what other options does Hamlet have?

All the questions on one pageChoose three for discussion 1. Is Hamlet an admirable character? 2. Is Gertrude to be blamed for her hasty marriage? 3. What is the relationship between Hamlet’s revenge and ethics? 4. Is Hamlet propagating the idea of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth? 5. Who are the scapegoats in the play and what do you think about them? 6. From your perspective, what other options does Hamlet have?

第九週 指導老師：鄭惠芳 教授