THE DREAM OF OEDIPUS AWAKENING: INCEST AND FEMININITY IN BEGOVIĆ’S MYRRHA

Abstract

The paper attempts to give a psychoanalytic and feminist reading of one of the most intriguing,
but less known Milan Begović’s plays – Myrrha. The motif of dream, incest and the position of
woman in Begović’s first dramatic text are observed through the lens of the famous Freud’s
writings on femininity and dreams, but also thoughts, current at the time, about the distinctions
between men and women and sex-gender conditions (identity) presented in a study by the
Viennese philosopher Otto Weininger. The reading of Myrrha will start from the context of
Begović’s extensive dramatic work, and special emphasis will be given to the central female figure which anticipates later Begović’s creative obsession with women and their status in the
(contemporary) patriarchal surrounding.