This essay frames the Gloucester subplot in King Lear with the rich history of one of literary criticism's most powerful explanatory figures for human subjectivity—Oedipus. Such a framing, of course, ...

Sigmund Freud is a controversial figure in the history of psychology, and perhaps none of his ideas is more contentious than his theory of the Oedipus complex. Freud believed that humans are sexual ...

The panic over critical race theory—the shorthand boogeyman conservatives have weaponized to vilify schools that examine the role of institutional racism in the United States—has seen its fair share ...

Greek mythology is teeming with dudes who want to murder their fathers so they can bang their mothers. Nevertheless, as compelling as it is, I don’t really buy Freud’s Oedipus theory; personally, I’ve ...

“Oedipus Rex” is about as far from a new work as possible, having first been performed around 1,600 years ago. While stories of this caliber and place in the literary canon can often feel untouchable ...

Jocasta is finally alone with Oedipus, the man she knows at this point only as her husband. She tells him about being abused and impregnated as a 13-year-old by Laius, a much older man who will ...