Roger Travis. Allegory and the Tragic Chorus in Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus.(Book Review)

Publication: Comparative Drama

Publication Date: 22-SEP-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 www.wmich.edu/compdr

Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1999. Pp. xii + 243. $27.95.

In Allegory and the Tragic Chorus, Roger Travis combines literary theory and Lacanian as well as object-relations psychoanalytic methodologies to study the chorus in Oedipus at Colonus. Travis's main argument is that there is an allegory, an extended metaphor that pervades the play, "the allegorical performance of the self's fantasy-contents" (10). This allegory connects the play to both Oedipus and the Athenian audience and further reveals, through the chorus, "the self's relation to the maternal body" (3), in this case the body of Jocasta.

Travis describes his methodology and outlines the main focus of his argument in the book's introduction. Using Quintilian's definition of "allegory," "allegorize," and "allegorical" (which is quite necessary in comprehending his point), Travis sets out to prove that Oedipus at Colonus as a tragedy can only be understood through what he calls its "choral allegory." By this he means the ways in which the chorus throughout the play can relate to both Oedipus and the audience, while at the same time it helps them relate to each other, all through the use...

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