The Meaning of Oedipus Rex will launch The Nicolet College Library's 2009 Literary Series at 5:30 pm, Friday, Oct. 23, in the library. Admission is free and refreshments will be served.
Presenter and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Professor David Mulroy has been working for more than six years on a translation of the Greek classic that is challenging the way many scholars view the work.
Mulroy’s interpretation takes issue with the modern consensus that Oedipus is an innocent victim of fate and a courageous truth-seeker. On the contrary, Mulroy argues, when Oedipus blinds himself at the end of the play, he is merely doing in a physical sense what he has been doing intellectually since his youth: blotting out truths that he simply does not want to see.
"These days most scholars dismiss and even ridicule Freud's interpretation of Oedipus. I think that if you read the play closely, you have to come to a different conclusion. It's a dangerous play -- dangerous to your peace of mind."
"Oedipus is Everyman at his worst. Few of us do evil with our eyes open. First, we close our eyes. Then we do it," says Mulroy.
"Besides talking about the meaning of the play, I'll be reading excerpts from my new translation," he continues. "It is different from others that are in print in that I've translated the choral songs into rhymed stanzas to try to recreate their musicality. That is not fashionable, but like many people, I think it is time for rhythm and rhyme to make a comeback in American poetry. Here's an example:
"Men of future generations hear!
Your lives are nothing! Who of you can say his happiness did more than
just appear and having done so, turned and walked away.
If Oedipus's fate's the test,
no human state is truly blest!"
Mulroy earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Georgetown in 1965 and a doctorate from Stanford in the Classics in 1971. He taught at Princeton from 1968 to 1973 when he was awarded a tenure-track position at UW-Milwaukee, where he is now a professor of Classics.
Nicolet library director Marc Boucher studied under Mulroy. "Professor Mulroy was my favorite professor while I was UWM - he is extremely engaging and it is fun to see the cogs working while he is speaking," said Boucher.
"I've never met anyone who is so brilliant, yet approachable and humble all at the same time. We are really looking forward to Professor Mulroy coming back to the Northwoods to share his passion for
the classics."
The Literature Series will continue January 26 with a presentation by Wisconsin author Michael Perry.
The Nicolet College Library is located in the Learning Resources Center on the Rhinelander campus, one mile south of the city just off of Hwy. G.
