Good morning and welcome to this year’s Brisbane Writers festival, where the time has come to delve into and examine hero narratives. In particular we will contemplate cultural contexts, with consideration to culture evolving through time to developing and changing ideas, attitudes and values. The transition from ancient Greece in the 8th to 6th centuries before the Common Era, to two and a half thousand years later, where civilisation is today, has been extensive. The Oedipus plays by Sophocles, and in particular the Athenian tragedy Oedipus The King from ancient Greece, are vastly contrasting to the 2000 drama film, Billy Elliot directed by Stephen Daldry.
Oedipus the king, also known as Oedipus Rex is a Greek tragedy treated as a masterpiece. …show more content…
Billy, like Oedipus, ends up leaving his home, leaving behind everything he has - his friends and his family. There are many marked differences though, mainly from the conflicting types of heroes these two are. Oedipus was always depicted as someone who was powerful, and controlling Billy Elliot on the other hand, is trying to keep what he does after school, ballet, hidden from his father. The hero’s journey from Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1949 focusses on three major parts, the separation, the initiation and the return. Campbell made out that close to 100% of heroic stories follow this simple structure. Billy Elliot is one such example which fits the model. The call which invites us into billy life for the first time visualising the distaste he has for boxing where he undertake “the threshold” a period where Billy tries out ballet for the first time, it’s this courage that Billy showed that add to his heroic traits. As a viewer the next important part of the movie where shown is the problem that Billy is not allowed to do ballet as it isn’t considered a boys sport, this is the challenge, the problem, it climaxes at “the abyss” where Billy shows his father for the first time his dancing. After this the transformation occurs with their being nothing too hard for Billy to do, getting into the royal ballet school leaving home and coming into the return 14
Oedipus the king, also known as Oedipus Rex is a Greek tragedy treated as a masterpiece. …show more content…
Billy, like Oedipus, ends up leaving his home, leaving behind everything he has - his friends and his family. There are many marked differences though, mainly from the conflicting types of heroes these two are. Oedipus was always depicted as someone who was powerful, and controlling Billy Elliot on the other hand, is trying to keep what he does after school, ballet, hidden from his father. The hero’s journey from Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1949 focusses on three major parts, the separation, the initiation and the return. Campbell made out that close to 100% of heroic stories follow this simple structure. Billy Elliot is one such example which fits the model. The call which invites us into billy life for the first time visualising the distaste he has for boxing where he undertake “the threshold” a period where Billy tries out ballet for the first time, it’s this courage that Billy showed that add to his heroic traits. As a viewer the next important part of the movie where shown is the problem that Billy is not allowed to do ballet as it isn’t considered a boys sport, this is the challenge, the problem, it climaxes at “the abyss” where Billy shows his father for the first time his dancing. After this the transformation occurs with their being nothing too hard for Billy to do, getting into the royal ballet school leaving home and coming into the return 14