Critical Analysis Final

Apology of Socrates

Plato

Allegory of the Cave

The Republic

Excerpts from Oedipus Tyrannos

Sophocles

Oedipus

Robert Icke

A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud

Othello (Act I, Scenes I-II)

Shakespeare

The Prince

Machiavelli

Diving into the Wreck

Adrienne Rich

Ode to Aphrodite; Fragment 16, 58, and 130

Sappho

The “Manifesto of the Communist Party”

Karl Marx

Modern Times

Charlie Chaplin

The Souls of Black Folk

W.E.B. Du Bois

Recitatif

Toni Morrison

Elenchus

Technique that Socrates uses to investigate the nature of ethical concepts. The original definition has been refuted and a modified one emerges. The modified definition is once again interrogated and refuted a second time. The process continues until a satisfactory definition—one that everyone agrees on—is reached.

Daimon

A supernatural being or entity.

Allegory

Narrative, whether in prose or verse, are contrived by the other to make coherence sense on the ‘literal’ or primary level of significance and at the same time communicate a second correlated order of signification

Hubris

Arrogant disregard for laws and other moral constraints

Tyrannos

A single individual who rules a city-state. He has executive privilege and power, but can, to some extent, share it with others. The role is a non-inherited one

Dramatic Irony

Refers to moments when the audience hears a meaning of which the speaker is unaware

Oedipus

A combination of oidein (“to swell”) or oida (“I have seen” / “I have known”) and pous (“foot”). Oedipus can thus be read as “Swell-Foot” and “Know-Foot.

Sphinx

A mythical creature with the head and bust of a human (a woman), the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle or falcon, and the tail of a snake. Stationed at the crossroads between Delphi and Thebes, the Sphinx would confront passersby with a riddle: “What creature has 4 legs in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, and 3 in the evening?” Oedipus and the Sphinx (1864) by Gustave Moreau

Hamartia

Innocent mistake based on ignorance of a particular fact (traditional definition)

A mistake arising from a flaw of character such as pride or anger (modern definition

Psychoanalysis

Studies the unconscious mind and is a theory that explains how human behavior is powered by unconscious drive and desires.

Oedipus Complex

Individual’s unconscious desire for the parent of the opposite sex and the hatred of the parent of the same sex

Moor

Does not actually describe an ethnicity or race but is used to refer to someone of African or Arabic descent.

Iambic Pentameter

Metrical form with a long history in English poetry. It consists of five alternating pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables that mimic the sound of a heartbeat.

“mirrors of princes”

Short treatises urging rulers to be merciful and generous toward their subjects. These manuals were popular during the middle ages and phrased their advice in the language of Christian morality and reminded those in power to remain virtuous.

Liberality

Generosity

Parsimony

Unwillingness to spend money

Machiavellian

Denoting cunningness, manipulation, and deviance

Ode

A poem in praise of someone or something

Aphrodite

The Greek goddess of love and beauty

Trojan War

Armed Conflict that pitted the Achaeans (Greeks) against the Trojans after the ‘abduction’ of Helen by Paris

Bourgeoisie

The class of modern Capitalists, owners of the means of production and employers of wage-labor

Proletariat

The class of modern wage-laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor-power in order to live

Marxism

The movement founded by Marx and Engels that fights for the self-emancipation of the working class.

Means of production

What humans apply their labor to

Historical/Dialectical Materialism

Believing that all change results from the constant conflict arising from the oppositions inherent in all ideas, movements, and events.

Alienation

The process that results in the workers’ lack of control over their own labor, which they must “sell” to the members of the bourgeoisie / the factory owners

Spiritual

A type of religious folksong most closely associated with the enslavement of African people in the American South

Recitative

“a rhythmically free vocal style that imitates the natural inflections of speech and is used for dialogue and narrative in operas an oratorios.” It also refers to the tone or rhythm peculiar to any language.”