This book examines the use of myth in contemporary popular and high culture, and proposes that the aporetic subject, the individual that 'does not know', is the ideal contemporary subject. Using several contemporary novels, films and theatrical plays that illustrate aporia such as Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (Riordan, 2007), Tron Legacy (Koninski, 2010), Welcome to Thebes (Buffini, 2010), The Photographers (Koundouros, 1998), Prometheus (2012) and Prometheus Retrogressing (Sfikas, 1998) Angie Voela introduces common ground between Lacanian psychoanalysis and some of Freud's most ardent critics, Michel Foucault and Jean Baudrillard, as well as the cultural philosopher Bernard Stiegler. These unprecedented systematic comparisons broaden the scope and impact of Lacanian psychoanalysis in inter-disciplinary debates of philosophy and culture and Voela argues that apart from dealing with the past, psychoanalysis must alsodeal more explicitly with the present and the future. She presents a unique inquiry into modern subjectivity that will be of great interest to scholars of psychoanalysis, philosophy, film, literature and contemporary culture.

Discusses how today the most pertinent question might not be 'what is my truth?' but 'how will I recognise truth when I come across it?' Produces a new and truly interdisciplinary account of myth in contemporary culture Draws attention to the rise of the aporetic subject as a necessary metaphor for contemporary subjectivity

Autorentext

Angie Voela is a senior lecturer in Psychosocial Studies at the University of East London, UK. She has published in a number of journals and co-edited We Need to Talk About Family: Essays on Neoliberalism, the Family and Popular Culture .

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Aporia, the Sphinx, and the Hope that Life Will Make Sense.- 2. Ion's Aporia: Just Another Oedipus? 3. Towards a New Anthropogony? Tron Revisited.- 4. Forget Antigone?.- 5. The Abyss of the Other's Desire or Greek Myth for (Neoliberal) Children.- 6. The Search for Origin in Riddley' Scott's Prometheus.- 7.Conclusion: Aporia, Commemoration, Hope.