How is one to behave constructively when outer-world forces of clear understanding, reason, wisdom, darkness, destruction, and folly clash with the inner-world psychological struggle between what Carl Jung would call Higher Self and Shadow? Barbara Shocket and David Eisner will explore this topic through a series of ongoing courses that address Jungian perspectives on ancient literary, philosophical, and psychologically clairvoyant writers.
What are the relationships between primordial archetypes, and individual conscious and unconscious psychological life? Ancient Greek Drama provides a rich resource for exploring this question, with its delving into formative psychological battles, both intra-psychic and interpersonal. In this eight-week class, we will participate in a dynamic, interactive reading and discussion of The Oresteia, a gripping murder mystery trilogy by Aeschylus. Themes such as vengeance, love, and betrayal still resonate today, on multiple levels of self and society. We will read the Robert Fagles translation of The Oresteia, (Penguin Classics Edition). Students should bring a copy of that translation to class.