Vision and Desire: Jim Morrison's Mythography Beyond the Death of God

The poetry of Jim Morrison, as opposed to his lyric verse, has been the subject of little critical examination. The aim of this paper is to open up an understanding and interpretation of a mythographic landscape developed by Morrison in his response to existence in a demythologised western culture. Through the use of the Greek myth of Oedipus in its entirety, as opposed to the two most universally known events of the adult Oedipus' life, discussion here will attempt to demonstrate that Morrison developed a cohesive, holistic vision of the human condition of existence in the world, and presented a path of possibility for transcending its conflict. Indeed, it is proposed here that Morrison draws a clear path to and framework for living beyond the death of God. For structure, discussion will be framed around not only the Oedipal myth, but also the 'Three Metamorphoses' found in Nietzsche's <i>Thus Spoke Zarathustra</i>, a transformational trinity which is easily aligned to the story of Oedipus. Critical theory will be drawn from mythology, principally through the work of Joseph Campbell, existentialism, from the work of Soren Kierkegaard and Jean-Paul Sartre, psychoanalysis, drawing mainly from Sigmund Freud, Julia Kristeva and Jacques Lacan and philosophy, based largely though not exclusively, in Friedrich Nietzsche' s <i>The Will to Power</i>.与吉姆·莫里森（Jim Morrison）的抒情诗不同，其诗歌作品鲜少受到学界批判性审视。本文旨在阐释莫里森在回应祛魅后的西方文化生存境遇时所建构的神话图谱式图景。本文将完整援引希腊神话《俄狄浦斯》（Oedipus），而非仅采用大众最为熟知的俄狄浦斯成年后的两段人生经历，旨在论证莫里森构建了一套连贯完整的人类生存境遇视野，并提出了一条超越生存冲突的可能性路径。诚然，本文主张莫里森为超越“上帝之死”后的生存状态指明了清晰路径与实践框架。本文的论述结构将不仅围绕俄狄浦斯神话展开，同时还将纳入弗里德里希·尼采（Friedrich Nietzsche）《<i>查拉图斯特拉如是说》（Thus Spoke Zarathustra）</i>中的“三种变形”——这一具有转化意义的三重叙事，可与俄狄浦斯的故事形成自然呼应。本文的批判理论将主要来源于以下领域：神话学领域援引约瑟夫·坎贝尔（Joseph Campbell）的研究成果；存在主义领域则以索伦·克尔凯郭尔（Soren Kierkegaard）与让-保罗·萨特（Jean-Paul Sartre）的著作为基础；精神分析领域主要参考西格蒙德·弗洛伊德（Sigmund Freud）、朱莉娅·克里斯蒂娃（Julia Kristeva）与雅克·拉康（Jacques Lacan）的理论；哲学领域则主要（并非完全）基于弗里德里希·尼采的《<i>权力意志》（The Will to Power）</i>。