Saturday, December 18, 2004
Insight On Oedipus
We started to read the play “Oedipus The King” this week. With the play text opened right in front of us, Dr. Edwin read out the stage direction before the prologue. The last sentence was ‘ Oedipus enters’. He asked us to imagine how the king walked into the palace and even asked four persons to demonstrate it. Our four friends tried their best to walk as a king with dignity and arrogant. However, Dr. Edwin said that he was in ‘the jungle of hopelessness’!
Well, we have neglected the fact that the name Oedipus means “swollen feet”. It refers to the mutilation of Oedipus’ feet done by his father, Laius, before he was sent to Mount Cithaeron to be put to death by exposure. So when Oedipus enters the palace, he should have walked limply or hobbled with the aid of a stick. That means all of us have wrong interpretations for the stage direction.
I think when we read a play, we should read with insight. Essentially, insight is the ability to see into the true nature of human character with deep understanding. Though I have read “Oedipus The King” for two times. I still can’t understand and make sense of what I am reading. As Dr. Fouziah in her lecture has said that comprehension is the basis of reading. When we read, we must read for meaning. Not only that, we must be an active reader.
I have read an illustration given by Christine Nuttall in her book “Teaching Reading Skills In A Foreign Language”. She says that ‘the text is full of meaning like a jug full of water, the reader’s mind soaks it up like a sponge. In this view, the reader’s role is passive, all the work has been done by the writer and the reader has only to open his mind and let the meaning pour in.’
I think I am a passive reader. Though I wake up at 4.30am every morning so as to read some materials before I go to campus. However, whatever text I read is just like a jug of water that pours into my mind. I absorb it totally without giving insight into it. Well, I think I should change my reading strategies, I should read into the deep meaning of the text in the play if I want to understand it clearly.
Well, we have neglected the fact that the name Oedipus means “swollen feet”. It refers to the mutilation of Oedipus’ feet done by his father, Laius, before he was sent to Mount Cithaeron to be put to death by exposure. So when Oedipus enters the palace, he should have walked limply or hobbled with the aid of a stick. That means all of us have wrong interpretations for the stage direction.
I think when we read a play, we should read with insight. Essentially, insight is the ability to see into the true nature of human character with deep understanding. Though I have read “Oedipus The King” for two times. I still can’t understand and make sense of what I am reading. As Dr. Fouziah in her lecture has said that comprehension is the basis of reading. When we read, we must read for meaning. Not only that, we must be an active reader.
I have read an illustration given by Christine Nuttall in her book “Teaching Reading Skills In A Foreign Language”. She says that ‘the text is full of meaning like a jug full of water, the reader’s mind soaks it up like a sponge. In this view, the reader’s role is passive, all the work has been done by the writer and the reader has only to open his mind and let the meaning pour in.’
I think I am a passive reader. Though I wake up at 4.30am every morning so as to read some materials before I go to campus. However, whatever text I read is just like a jug of water that pours into my mind. I absorb it totally without giving insight into it. Well, I think I should change my reading strategies, I should read into the deep meaning of the text in the play if I want to understand it clearly.
# posted by Dr. Yee Bee Choo @ 9:30 PM 
