Tirannide e mito di Giobbe. Da Franz Kafka a Terrence Malick

Abstract This paper examines some references to tyranny in literature and cinema. It begins by discussing the accounts of tyranny and of tyrants in Vittorio Alfieri’s Della tirannide (1777). Then it outlines the relations between the archetypal and mythical figures of Oedipus and Job. There are two directions of analysis. First, the way ‘from Oedipus to Job’ is shown in Franz Kafka’s Der Process and Briefe an den Vater. Second, the way ‘from Job to Oedipus’ may be found in Terrence Malick’s movie The Tree of Life. Finally, it provides an assessment of central aspects of the myth of Job in the approaches of Jung and Freud.