Abstract
This chapter introduces Euripides’ play Ion and the main character as an aporetic subject. The play offers ideal grounds for the convergence between Lacan, Baudrillard, and Stiegler. Fearless speech (parrhesia as defined by Foucault) is comparable to Lacan’s full speech, a mode of speaking in which the subject is sustained by nothing else but their aporia. In Baudrillard, this moment corresponds to an impossible exchange between conventional truth and truth as an unassimilable piece of knowledge. From Stiegler’s perspective, the Ion articulates the young man’s demand for an interpretation (hermeneia) of the past that will set the conditions for a hopeful future in democratic Athens.
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Notes
- 1.
Both Oedipus and Ion are exposed infants. Oedipus’ character is established, and no new facet develops during the dramatic action. He has a hasty temper, and his pursuit of truth is passionate. He refuses to be convinced by his adopted parents, Polybus and Merope. In the Ion, the young hero is inexperienced, and action is entirely human. Nothing is known by Ion. Unlike Oedipus’ first entry on stage, Ion’s monody reveals sensitivity and lack of maturity.
- 2.
‘The thought of the outside’, is the title of Foucault ’s writing (2003), which explores the limits of language and the margin beyond meaning and signification.
- 3.
Privation, frustration, and castration are three types of lack of object , each referring to a different order, the Real , the Imaginary, and the Symbolic. Privation refers to the loss of the object a (Evans 1996: 151).
- 4.
See Barlow (1971) for a comprehensive reading of the monody.
- 5.
- 6.
Ion will later add that he himself is probably the product of ‘injustice’ or ‘error’ (325).
- 7.
Froma Zeitlin’s (1995) account of the construction of the self in the Ion is one of the most accomplished and insightful readings of the play.
- 8.
- 9.
Defences attempt to (a) undo what has been done or (b) isolate the ugly (Freud [1926] 1993: 274–8).
- 10.
This is a moment at which one is coming to terms with the inconsistency of the Other , namely that no one ‘pulls the strings’ of the subject. This moment can be liberating, as one gets to see that the Other has no power over one, and devastating, as one loses the safety net of a robust set of reference points and ideals (Žižek 1994: 59).
- 11.
Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey), an insurance salesman, thinks he lives an idyllic life on Seahaven Island. What he does not know is that he is the hero of a 24/7 reality broadcast and actually lives on an elaborate stage setting. His whole world is the enclosed space of Seahaven Island—until of course he begins to notice some strange repetitions.
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Voela, A. (2017). Ion’s Aporia: Just Another Oedipus?. In: Psychoanalysis, Philosophy and Myth in Contemporary Culture. Studies in the Psychosocial. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48347-8_2
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