Narcissus, Oedipus and the Persistence of Memory

Why does the myth of Narcissus continue to fascinate and provoke the contemporary artistic imagination? In what ways does classical mythology in general hold up a mirror to the anxieties and aspirations of the here-and-now? This lecture will address these and other questions relating to the enduring power of ancient myth – above all, the tales of metamorphosis contained in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Writer and academic James Cahill will discuss how these stories have continued to infiltrate and inspire the art of the last hundred years, both overtly and in more oblique or unexpected ways, while also giving fundamental shape to modern literature and psychoanalysis. He will argue that Salvador Dalí’s iconic reimagining of the Narcissus myth stands at the crux between different modes of ‘response’ to the classical, looking simultaneously backwards (to the mythologizing paintings of the Renaissance, for instance) and forwards to the experiments of conceptual art and postmodernism – at once an illustration of the ancient myth and an enactment of its subliminal themes.

Suitable for
18+
16-17

Admission
Standard £12 Concession £9 Member £9 Patron £ 9

Website
https://www.freud.org.uk/event/narcissus-oedipus-and-the-persistence-of-memory-classical-myth-in-modern-and-contemporary-art/#

Source: https://www.culture24.org.uk/se000274?id=EVENT591845