Mirrors of the Self: The Myth of Narcissus in the Monologues of Spalding Gray
Date of Award
1996
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Institution Granting Degree
The Ohio State University
Cedarville University School or Department
Art, Design, and Theatre
First Advisor
Cecily O’Neill
Second Advisor
Katherine H. Burkinan
Third Advisor
Alan Woods
Keywords
Spalding Gray, narcissism, Narcissus
Abstract
In Ovid's retelling of the Narcissus myth in Book III of Metamorphoses, Tiresias prophesies that the infant Narcissus will have a long life, provided "he shall himself not know." Centuries later, American monologist Spalding Gray performs self-reflexive material in what he has described as an attempt "to tell the story in order to heal myself through the telling ... to make sense of it." This study examines the autobiography-based novel and selected performance monologues of Spalding Gray as illuminated by the myth of Narcissus as told by Ovid. The onstage persona of Spalding Gray, performed by a man named Spalding Gray, deals with contemporary issues and dilemmas which reflect our current society's narcissism. Elements of the Narcissus myth such as water imagery, mirrors and reflection, attraction to an other, and struggles related to a sense of a cohesive self surface in Gray's works as they provide a context for the perception of his works as a reflection of the cultural climate. Theorists such as Christopher Lasch (The Culture of Narcissism and The Minimal Self), Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child), D. W. Winnicott (particularly his theory of the mirroring mother) and others help illustrate that mythic elements, as part of a "collective unconscious," surface symbolically in literature, and in particular in the works of Spalding Gray. Gray's monologues (and his novel, a monologue by virtue of its first-person narrative and basis in autobiographical events) reflect more than the concerns of a protagonist wrestling with issues of the self. Indeed, the works are profound explorations of a narcissistic culture.
Recommended Citation
Merchant, Diane C., "Mirrors of the Self: The Myth of Narcissus in the Monologues of Spalding Gray" (1996). Faculty Dissertations. 25.
https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/faculty_dissertations/25
