Inmates respond to philosophy prof's moral exploration of ancient play
A fictional murder is stimulating philosophical discussions at the prison where a Columbia University professor volunteers.
Writing at the Washington Post, philosophy professor Christia Mercer says the need for educational volunteers is pressing since a 1994 law ended federal Pell grants for inmates. Many states followed suit, ending state-funded educational programs in prisons. In many states, it’s up to volunteers to educate prisoners.
Mercer recently asked her prison pupils to act out a scene from Aeschylus’ play Oresteia in which Clytemnestra reveals she killed her husband and his mistress. She is later killed by her son and returns as a ghost to argue for revenge.
According to Mercer, the 2,500-year-old play ends with “an insecure compromise between forms of justice.”
“Although my Columbia undergrads find this conclusion unsettling, the play’s ambiguity seems just right to my incarcerated students, all of whom have intensely experienced life’s vagaries and horrors,” Mercer writes. “As one woman said, to unanimous approval, ‘People expect things in life to be clear, but they’re not. That’s the point.’ These women’s intellectual courage and uncanny insight have created a magical space of moral and literary exploration. Despite the oppressive confines of the prison itself, they flourish before my eyes.”
