Juvenilia ✔/ a Nonfiction Undergraduate University Collection

Revised Final Research Essay Proposal

ENGLISH 3863

Early Critical Theory

November 4th, 2021

Revised Final Research Essay Proposal

Upon further reflection, I would like to propose a slight variation to my original proposal: I would like to continue with my Margon argument, but contrast it against Le Cid and 'the improbable' using the controversy as a starting point. 

With Oedipus the King on one side and Le Cid at the other, I want to juxtapose the differences between the nature of probability in both plays by using the sources I included before – Margon, as well as one (either Fosso or Gould) combined with a source on Le Cid beyond the controversy piece. 

My intention is to make a case for defending Oedipus and comparing it against Le Cid using examples from Aristotle's Poetics, as well as by supplementing with sources and my own arguments. 

Of particular note in 'The Cid Controversy' is the section on 'The Opinions of the French Academy'. There is a lot of cross-over in that section where Oedipus itself is mentioned in combination with Aristotle's Poetics. 

While there are a couple of instances of the 'illogical' in Oedipus Rex, the entire plot of Le Cid is riddled with illogical occurrences, starting and ending with an incompetent King, which seems to be something Aristotle would have a problem with out of the gate. At the very least, Oedipus was not incompetent.

My section using the Margon article will differ from my original paper as I will be using the source with a slightly different aim for this paper. It will become more focused as I write it, but it will be a comparison between Oedipus the King and Le Cid with an emphasis on what works, what doesn't work, and why.

[PROPOSED SOURCES]

Dukore, Bernard F., et al. "The Cid Controversy." Dramatic Theory and Criticism: Greeks to Grotowski, Houghton Mifflin, New York, NY, 1997, pp. 211–237.

Fosso, Kurt. "Oedipus Crux: Reasonable Doubt in 'Oedipus the King.'" College Literature, Vol. 39, no. 3, 2012, pp. 26–60., https://www.jstor.org/stable/23266055.

Gould, Thomas. "The Innocence of Oedipus: The Philosophers on Oedipus the King." Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, Vol. 4, no. 3, 1965, pp. 363–386., https://www.jstor.org/stable/20162968.

Margon, Joseph S. "Aristotle and the Irrational and Improbable Elements in 'Oedipus Rex.'" The Classical World, vol. 70, no. 4, 1976, pp. 249–255., https://www.jstor.org/stable/4348643.

[PRIMARY SOURCES]

Corneille, Pierre. "Le Cid." Translated by A. S. Kline, 2007. Public Domain Work.

Gilbert, Allan H., and Aristotle. "The Poetics." Literary Criticism - Plato to Dryden, Wayne State Univ. P., Detroit, MI, 1962, pp. 68–105.

Sophocles. "Oedipus the King." The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles: A Newly Revised and Updated Version, translated by Paul Roche, Penguin, New York, NY, 1991, pp. 1–81.