Frank O’Connor, the author of “My Oedipus Complex”, was a member of the Irish Renaissance. The Irish Renaissance was a movement of Irish nationalist artists that included William Butler Yeats and Sean O’Casey (McMahan, Day, Funk 1152). O’Connor wrote plays, novels, autobiographies and 150 short stories (Tomory 17). Born as Michael O’Donovan, he picked up the pseudonym Frank O’Connor to keep anonymous (Wohlgelernter 3). At least 70 of his short stories related to Irish family life and a majority of those related to his own life experiences. “My Oedipus Complex” was one of those stories.
The Greek mythological character Oedipus was the son of Lauis, king of Thebes, and Jocasta. An oracle warned Lauis that if he had a son, his son would kill him. When Oedipus was born, Lauis remembered what the oracle said and pierced his son’s ankles with spikes and gave him to a herdsman to leave him on a mountain to die. On the mountain, the horsemen of King Polybus of Corinth foun
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