Oedipus the King and Memento Meet the Sophists Halfway “You don’t know who you are … maybe it’s time you started investigating yourself,” says
Teddy to Leonard in the critically acclaimed neo-noir film Memento (C. Nolan, 2000). As a result of anterograde amnesia, Leonard does not know that he himself is the very culprit he seeks to punish for killing his wife. The multiple and seemingly conflicting roles of Leonard as detective, criminal, and avenger correspond to those of Oedipus in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. I explicate these and other associations of narrative, and then discuss a deeper correspondence. According to my critique, the prevailing critical assessment of how these works relate to sophism is misinformed. In both cases, this …show more content…
I believe that the relation of these works to sophism is more nuanced and instead lies somewhere between the extremes of rejection and embrace. Oedipus the King is more appreciative of sophism than previously understood, and Memento less so, and in the process they meet somewhere in the middle. Both works, I believe, acknowledge the problematic nature of how language reflects reality without denying its ability to do so. The narrative correspondences between Oedipus the King and Memento are obvious and abundant: both Oedipus and Leonard commit crimes unintentionally and in response to information they misinterpret; investigate crimes of homicide and sexual violation; conduct their investigations in a veritable wasteland of death and dysfunctional relationships; overestimate their own cognitive skills because of past successes; ignore the warnings and advice of others; ultimately discover their true identity and simultaneously their own culpability.
I will now turn to how each work relates to sophism. Knox (142), de Romilly (16), and most others understand Oedipus the King categorically to reject the sophists. These sophists included Gorgias, who published his treatise On the Nonexistent in the 440s, taught
Teddy to Leonard in the critically acclaimed neo-noir film Memento (C. Nolan, 2000). As a result of anterograde amnesia, Leonard does not know that he himself is the very culprit he seeks to punish for killing his wife. The multiple and seemingly conflicting roles of Leonard as detective, criminal, and avenger correspond to those of Oedipus in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. I explicate these and other associations of narrative, and then discuss a deeper correspondence. According to my critique, the prevailing critical assessment of how these works relate to sophism is misinformed. In both cases, this …show more content…
I believe that the relation of these works to sophism is more nuanced and instead lies somewhere between the extremes of rejection and embrace. Oedipus the King is more appreciative of sophism than previously understood, and Memento less so, and in the process they meet somewhere in the middle. Both works, I believe, acknowledge the problematic nature of how language reflects reality without denying its ability to do so. The narrative correspondences between Oedipus the King and Memento are obvious and abundant: both Oedipus and Leonard commit crimes unintentionally and in response to information they misinterpret; investigate crimes of homicide and sexual violation; conduct their investigations in a veritable wasteland of death and dysfunctional relationships; overestimate their own cognitive skills because of past successes; ignore the warnings and advice of others; ultimately discover their true identity and simultaneously their own culpability.
I will now turn to how each work relates to sophism. Knox (142), de Romilly (16), and most others understand Oedipus the King categorically to reject the sophists. These sophists included Gorgias, who published his treatise On the Nonexistent in the 440s, taught