비극적 영웅 신화로서의 『오이디푸스 왕』과 『콜로노스의 오이디푸스』 다시 읽기:

라캉의 주체담론을 중심으로

Unlike previous works, which follow Homeric tradition of tragic heroes, in Oedipus at Colonus , a sequel to Oedipus the King , Sophocles seeks to establish a new vision of the tragic hero. Freud’s reading of the myth of Oedipus, largely based on Oedipus the King , despite his great contribution to the study of human psychology, fails to gain insight into a tragic hero, which the playwright tries to embody in the play. Jacques Lacan, on the other hand, reads Sophocles’ Oedipus plays not so much to confirm his psychoanalytic theory as Freud does as to show how Oedipus’ downfall turns him into ‘a sublime subject’ that psychoanalytic practices ultimately aim for. In his reading, Lacan uses two strategies: he first applies paternal metaphor, a modified Oedipal structure that has linguistic and social implications, to the plays, and second, gives deeper significance to the ending of Oedipus at Colonus, interpreting Oedipus’ death in Zeus’ sacred precinct as an experience of encountering the real. This study, on the assumption that Lacan’s concepts of sublime subject lead to Sophocles’ final vision of the tragic hero, attempts to demonstrate how these Oedipus tragedies can be read as exemplary texts on ‘the heroic subject of psychoanalysis.’