Unit 2
   English 201: 
  Masterpieces of Western Literature
.Unit 2 Reading Course Reading Entry Page
Introduction Background .Explication Questions Review

Introduction:

Self:You may think that the sense of self is universal.  Actually the "self" is both a bio-developmental accomplishment & the product of a specific culture that defines or offers various identities.  Strangely, one cannot develop a self without having developed a social identity that is largely defined by the culture in which one grows up.  You might be interested in how different the Japanese sense of self is, being largely based on Confucian ethics. Follow the link to read selections from Ruth Benedict's study of Japanese culture:

 
 Japanese Identity
Narcissus:the prominent characters in The Iliad (AK, AG, Paris) are narcissists.  This is a psychological term used to characterize someone who is self-absorbed & who has little empathy or concern for others.  If you do not know the myth about Narcissus, look it up.  Echo fell in love with Narcissus, who remained  unresponsive.  Apparently Narcissus' behavior was outrageous (hubris) enough to cause Nemesis to re-establish the balance or norm of human behavior by arranging for Narcissus to fall in love with someone as unattainable & unresponsive as he had been.

Oedipal Complex: you may think that the Oedipal complex refers only to the story of Oedipus: how he unknowingly (unconsciously) killed his father & married his mother.  This story is one of many illustrations of the universal human experience of acquiring an identity, which is what the Oedipal complex is about:  recognizing the difference between me (given through immediate subjective experience) & you (an objective concept).  There is a recognition that desire & dreams lack the power to change things objectively.  You must become "someone" possessing some objecitve power to get what you want in the "real world."  You might care to glance through the abstracts of papers given at conference on the topic of the Oedipal complex:      According to Freud, our sense of self has 3 developmental components or stages.  Each uses libido (desire) in a different way.  Everyone begins life possessing only the id, which is preserved in the unconscious.  Infants "know" only what they immediately want.  This is not exactly correct.  Infants do not "know" anything.  They are not self-conscious, nor do they possess language.  Nonetheless, they experientially or instinctively wish to satisfy their desires.  Mom "knows" what her baby wants.  Libido is manifest in the unconscious as desire that is: infantile ("I want . . . I want . . . ."); ambivalent ("I love IT; I hate IT"); & timeless (it remains infantile & does not learn from experience -- this is the world of dreams).
 Human growth & development reaches a stage when the infant experiences denial.  It wants & it doesn't get what it wants.  In addition, there is something like dawning self-consciousness of this experience.  The infant does not simply fail to get this or that experience.  It feels negated; as though mom has just shrugged her shoulders in total indifference to the infant's very existence.  This universal human experience is so shocking that we cannot accept it.  Accepting it would be death.  Instead, we erase or deny the experience by investing in a super-ego.  (The illustration is of Dionysus, the god of wine & the unconscious.)
The super-ego is manifest  as masks, myths & culturally defined scripts (being a soldier, a beauty queen, etc.).  The list of types or archetypes includes, very significantly, the Greek gods.  The essential attraction of pretending to be any super-ego type is power.  Such characters seem invulnerable.  They don't need mom.  So she never has the opportunity to reject them.  They are invulnerable; self-powered; narcissists.
     Investing in social roles (conscience) is difficult.  One must pay attention to the world, learn a language & mimic various roles to acquire various identities (you act one way with mom, another way with dad, & still another way with siblings).  The id would rather dream than play social games.  The id demands immediate gratification, that is, total power.  Nonetheless, we continue to invest in the super-ego because we feel that it the mask & uniform & technique will  enpower us.  Each person develops a dynamic (or changing) balance between these two forces of what I want (id) & what I have to do in order to be praised & enpowered (super-ego).  This balance defines our individual ego.
     The ego or self assumes that it is primary.  It assumes that it initiates behavior by employing rational thought.  This is illusory (in psychoanalytic theory).  The ego is a tertiary entity.  Our behavior is fundamentally caused by libido manifest in the id (urges, dreams, compulsions).  Unfortunately, the id is powerless to affect the objective world.  Therefore the second cause of our behavior is the acceptance of social roles, uniforms, masks, & scripts.  In one way or another, these protect us from vulnerability, which can only ask for mercy.  The super-ego uniform is a shield & armor.

Theme:Honor.  Honor is composed of two or three parts.  First, it requires a discrete form, a distinct self & name (super-ego).  Second, this person must possess inordinate power.  Third, the power is benign or generated in a socially approved way.  There is also an implicit dynamic or temporal lesson.  If one adopts the hero as a model & imitates important features of his distinctive behavior (morality, virtue), then one can gain or share some of this power/honor.

Reality:our experience of the id is often characterized as responding to the pleasure principle.  Our involvement with the super-ego is often characterized as dealing with the reality principle.  Of course our subjective experience is inescapable.  Asian cultures are highly conscious of this.  Our Western culture is not so conscious of this.  In fact, the West has prized the objective (the empirical, the scientific, the economic) over the subjective.  In this section of The Iliad, notice how it is not "real" enough for a character to simply feel powerful or dominant.  He must objectively prove his power by compelling someone else to acknowledge it; to honor it.  AG takes Briseis, not because he is interested in her, but to prove to AK that he (AG) has more power.  AK prays for his comrades to be killed so that the army will regret that it did not oppose AG & recognize AK as more powerful than AG; to honor AK above AG.  Power is both recognized & approved through ceremonies of honor.

Click on the next section: Background above.