Nicholas Ealy, professor of English and modern languages (A&S), was recently invited by the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland (Australia) to give an hour-long online talk as part of the school’s Studies in Culture lecture series. His presentation, “Echo’s Testimony and the Narcissus Myth in Alfonso X the Wise’s General History,” comes from recent work for his current book project on narcissism, testimony, and medieval/early-modern Spanish literature.
Here is the abstract of the talk:
Artists, writers and thinkers have long considered Ovid’s myth of Narcissus as a foundational text containing answers to questions regarding human selfhood and desire. The General History (ca. 1270), a universal history written under the direction of Alfonso X the Wise, king of Castile from 1252 to 1284, contains an Old Spanish version of the myth that at times diverges significantly from Ovid’s account by adding scenes, related myths and commentary. This talk addresses the uniqueness of this version by focusing on the figure of Echo who, in love with Narcissus, can only repeat his words as she tries, in vain, to find a voice that might actualize her desires for reciprocal affection. As such, the talk explores how we can look to Echo’s iterative speech as a type of testimony that, while speaking to her experience, must alter, resist and silence that of Narcissus – in ways that call into question the very nature of testimony.