Tragedy, Politics and Gender Assistant Professor Sandrine Bertaux

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Presentation transcript:

Tragedy, Politics and Gender Assistant Professor Sandrine Bertaux Euripides, Medea Tragedy, Politics and Gender Assistant Professor Sandrine Bertaux

Tragedy today From Merriam-Webster online:

Tragedy today A tragedy today evokes great sufferings and death; It is a visual spectacle arousing feeling of compassion predicated on a restricted sense of humanity that is, the innocence of the victims ( i.e. a child); The politics of compassion as de-politicization.

Tragedy, Politics and Theatre in the Golden Age of Athens Theatre as a political institution Tragedy: the most influential cultural innovation of Golden Age Athens. The tragedians Patriarchal society and the revenge of a mother

Athens

Theatre, a political institution Origins of tragedy: Tragedy : goat-song Aristotle Poetics: emerged from the improvisation of the dithyramb Vs. Historian Moses I. Finley: Theatre, encounter of epic and tragedy, “revolutionary invention” of Athens Importance of speech in Athens

Tragedy at the Great Dionysia theatre: a public affair, state-sponsored. Performance of Athenian tragedies: over three days at the annual religious festival of the Great Dionysia. Competition between authors: three were chosen to present three tragedies in a row (trilogy) followed by a semicomic play. First-rate actors were assigned by lottery to playwrights Prizes awarded to authors, actors, and producers modest; but it does bring enormous fame

Theatre of Dionysus, Athens It could seat 15,000 spectators

Rigid masks

The tragedians Aeschylus (525-456 BCE), Sophocles (496-406 BCE), Euripides (483-406 BCE): together 300 plays; only 32 survived. Myths flexible: Euripides innovates, Medea kills her children. For Aristole, Poetics, tragedy’s aim is the catharsis effect (tragic pleasure) on the audience. Euripides’ Medea is inconsistent: the presence of Aegeus and the denouement (Deus ex machina).

Patriarchal society Tragedy: a reflection of the political implications of moral issues: women are not citizens in Athens: Medea (248): “They we [women] live sheltered lives in the home, free from danger, while they wield their spears in battle-What fools they are! I would much rather face the enemy three times over than bear a child once.” Euripides connects the social order with the political order implying that the former is fundamental to the latter.

Killing sons Line 790-795: “It makes me groan to think what deed I must do next. For I shall kill my own children; no one shall take them from me. I will wreak havoc on all Jason’s house and then quit this land, to escape the charge of murdering my beloved children, after daring to do a deed that is abominable indeed.” Would it still be relevant for Medea to kill her children if they were girls?

Medea, a Tragic Character? Merriam-Webster: 2-a : “A serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force (such as destiny) and having sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that elicits pity or terror.” Does Medea encounter a disastrous conclusion? Does she elicit pity or terror? Is she just a Barbarian sorceress after all?