Oedipus or the Wrecks of the WASP Disguise

Abstract

Woody Allen’s 1989 film Oedipus Wrecks is typically considered to be a throwback to his light-hearted early comedies, reduced to the caricature of the archetypical overbearing Jewish mother. Yet, the title of the film, largely regarded as a Freudian gag, does not merely refer to the psychoanalytic term ‘Oedipus complex,’ but also echoes the Greek tragedy of Oedipus. In this chapter I would like to suggest that the intertextual relations between Allen’s Oedipus Wrecks and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex shape the thematic complexity and richness of the film. Sophoclean leitmotifs, such as the tension between choice and fate and the struggle between hiding and revealing one’s authentic identity, are intertwined in Allen’s work. Analyzing Oedipus Wrecks through the mythical prism also brings the film into dialogue with some of Allen’s earlier films, as well as various modern Jewish-American literary works portraying the self-hating Jew, who is eager to assimilate into American culture.