Electra Myth in Ancient and Modern Drama
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StatusThe thesis was presented on the 26 January, 2006Approved by NCAA on the 23 February, 2006 Abstract – 0.87 Mb / in romanianThesisCZU 82.09(100)(043.3)
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Keywords
comparison, reception, influence, myth, fundamental situation of the myth, archetype, ethno-religious myth, literary myth, literalised myth, mythicization, demythicization, sacred, profane, humanization, character, action, theme, literary system, literary model, artistic originality, drama, tragedy, tragic, tragic quilt, text, intertextualism, psychology, psychoanalysis, subconscious, existentialism, time, spaceSummary
The present thesis, entitled Electra Myth in Ancient and Modern Drama, proposes to investigate the system of the thematic elements of Electra myth from both the diachronic perspective of its beginnings, development and consolidation, and from the synchronic one, following a number of defining features, principles and elements (theoretical, thematic and structural) correlated within one literary pattern. It is to be implemented the first, probably, study that focuses, in synthesis, methodologically and methodically, on Electra myth conceived as a literary system in itself, expressing in literature a fundamental situation for the human condition, where Electra becomes a literary invention, a literary archetype as universal symbol, reifying its own literary myth of individual essence.
However, Electra myth has to be regarded in relation to the ethno-religious myth of the Atreus family, in whose thematic context Electra myth finds its origin, is related to and actually belongs to according to the specificity of its thematic perspectives. Under the form of literary myth, that is being an independent literary system expressing its own fundamental situation, Electra myth develops and establishes itself as literary typology and dramatic tradition in Electra by Sophocles, Electra by Euripides, Mourning Becomes Electra by O’Neill and Electra by Giraudoux; under the form of literalised myth, that is being placed as literary system within the larger system of a different and ampler fundamental situation expressed by the myth of the Atreus family (as an ethno-religious myth rendered literary in dramatic texts), Electra myth reveals itself in Oresteia by Aeschylus, The Flies by Sartre and The Family Reunion by Eliot. The main factor that has generated the rise of Electra myth, as well as the freedom of literary representation of Electra in the dramatic texts (tragedies) of ancient and modern periods as premises of artistic originality, is to be found in the structure of the myth of the Atreus family, in which Electra has not been established in the framework of some rigid parameters concerning her role and importance in the course of events.
Electra myth – focused on events and their consequences concerning the status of
Electra as an emotional and psychological factor involved in and co-participant at Orestes’
punitive action – represents a literary myth, narration-product of the artistic imagination, and
the fundamental situation that confers to Electra and the action in which she is involved the
status of myth refers to the inter-human determinism based on a large range of emotional and
psychological states that manifest in the context of a symbolic typology of human existence
regarding violence, crime, revenge, and an action that destabilizes the universal harmony, the
welfare of the city and the individual and family existence, where the perpetration of another
crime as punitive action is expected to restore the lost values and to re-establish the personal
and social well-being. Electra’s role is to become aware of this situation and to confer to it the
status of an existential model, a pattern of life through her own psychological and emotional
significance as the expression of a tragic heroism, intense experiences, exacerbate emotions,
unstable subconscious, extreme suffering, inherited quilt, which will eventually give rise to
the necessity of action and determine its perpetration by Orestes. Electra involves and even
participates in the required action, which is vengeful and liberating, brutal and rationalized,
emotional and instinctual, egotistical and formative, depending on the thematic variety of
different dramatic texts, typologically patterned and at the same time open to artistic diversity.
Both ancient and modern writers of Electra myth perform demythicization and mythicization
of the dramatic discourse through the creation of realistic characters and life situations, and,
respectively, through the revival of a deep mythological essence, conferring to it the tragic
substance of certain archetypal human and behaviorist types having epical resonance,
expressing general human existence and prompting static models with timeless,
superhistorical and metaliterary values. The demythicization and mythicization, simultaneous
processes taking place in a single literary text, signify the permanence of Electra myth, its
diachronic evolution and literary continuity, its consolidation as a dramatic tradition open to
innovating perspectives and creative originality. At the same time, Electra myth represents a
well-structured system that keeps its essence unmodified, disregarding the chronotope of
action, the names of characters and the concourse of events, and thus proving the truth
according to which myth develops, survives, continues its evolution, and remains
representative and didactic for the human condition and community only as being placed in
the framework of the literary discourse.
Oficial Reviewers
- Elena Prus
doctor habilitat, professor, Free International University of Moldova - Ştefan Avădane
doctor în filologie, profesor universitar,, Universitatea „Al. I. Cuza” din Iaşi (România)
Theses
