About
Tracing Medea
Research Topics & Questions: The Socio-Cultural Reception of Euripides’ Medea in the mid-20th and 21st Centuries
“Arguably, among the many figures from classical antiquity that have been exerting a continuing fascination for more than two thousand years, Medea has proven to e able o cast a specially enduring spell upon all of us, providing uncountable creative and intellectual challenges to thought and culture across centuries and across the world.” Rosanna Lauriola, “Medea”
Medea’s story as constructed in mythological narratives, literary works, and especially Euripides’ drama has a certain resonance with the modern world. In contemporary times the name Medea has become a synonym for maternal infanticide with researchers on the topic arguing that Medea’s situation bears chilling resemblance to current mothers who kill their children. This aspect of Medea’s story and identity is one that is indeed a focal point in modern rewritings of her actions. However, this is not her only attribute that makes her popular and relatable to contemporary audiences.
Various facets of Medea are as relevant today as they were in antiquity. The mother-murderer, the scorned wife, the hurt lover, the outsider, the socially-restricted woman, and the human are aspects of her which make her speak directly to our age. These are the qualities that have rendered her one of the most famous figures from classical antiquity who is still fascinating artists and spectators around the world. Medea’s reception in contemporary literary and artistic forms has become very complex and versatile. Medea, as presented in Graeco-Roman tragedy, is mostly interpreted as an icon of female revenge, an advocate for women’s rights, a representative of minorities, and, on a metatheatrical level, as an inset poet of her own drama. Thus, her modern counterparts are reflections of her multi-layered character who has become in contemporary plays an avenger, an author, and a feminist of various ethnic and social origins and status.
This project focuses on the theatrical reception of Medea from the mid-20th century to the 21st century and seeks to situate Medea in space and time to visually and mutltimedially demonstrate how and why Medea’s story is still relevant today. The plays that are documented here are not simply contemporary performances of the original euripidean play in translation but rewritings/adaptations of Medea’s story and identity in ways that render her a symbol of issues that pertain to certain communities as well as the broader human condition. The plays discussed span mid-20th and 21st century and feature Medea(s) from the Americas to Asia and from Europe to Africa.
In Euripides’ eponymous tragedy, Medea contends that her situation is an inevitable hazard of the patriarchal rules governing marriage in the Greek world with women being dependent on their husbands while she repeats that she is a foreigner and an outcast within the Corinthian society. These ideas of social justice and gender equality that Medea voices in the fifth century BCE have been continuously fought for in the Western world since the 1950s. However, contemporary societies are still heavily debating on matters of inclusivity and belonging. Therefore, this project aims at creating a reflection space on such issues through the on-stage journey of Medea’s identity, a mythological and literary figure who has become an intertemporal symbol of proto-feminism and foreignness.
Project Scope, Methodologies & Audience
Tracing Medea is an animated archive of performances, places, and identity structures built on the values of visualization and mapping methodologies. Tracing Medea offers a digital spatio-cultural journey of the reception of Euripides’ play Medea, one of the most widely staged ancient Greek tragedies of the modern world. Medea has been characterized as the most theatrical of all Greek tragic characters and a heroine who has been fascinating audiences for more than two thousand years. The complexity of her ethnic, social, and gendered identity, her nature, character, and actions, her “otherness,” and her tragic story have long inspired the imagination of artists worldwide. Thus, her popularity and multifaceted reception on the contemporary stage render her an insightful case for the exploration of the relevance of ancient works and cultural frameworks to the modern world and the discussions and changes that an ancient figure can instigate among contemporary audiences.
Tracing Medea is intended to be used as a learning and research tool mainly by undergraduate students in the fields of Classics, Reception, and Theater Studies as well as by instructors in the same fields as a source for information and research questions on topics concerning Medea’s reception and identity. The goal of this multimedia (text, maps, videos) mapped tracing and digitally documented multicultural reception of Medea in time and space is to offer the user:
- a) a research platform which visualizes and makes accessible an enhanced version of the scholarship on Medea’s reception. This platform will allow the user to interact with contemporary reimaginings of Medea’s story organized thematically and experienced via maps, interviews, reviews, and videos to gain a broader perspective on the significance of Euripides’ classical play,
- b) a reflection space on issues that concern ethnic, social, and gender identity in their own time and place as well as intertemporally and interspatially.
Structure
Tracing Medea can be navigated through four major paths, the general exhibition that includes all case studies and the thematic exhibitions that explore certain aspects of Medea’s identity linking back to the main exhibition:
- Medea(s) on Stage from the mid-20th to the 21st Century: A Journey of the Self (Main Exhibition)
- Medea as an Outsider
- Medea as a Woman of Color
- Medea as a Contemporary Woman
Each exhibition comprises of collected items (interpretation, maps, photos, interviews, videos) that collectively highlight the aspects of Medea that are prominent in each adaptation as well as the intentions and reasons behind the specific revisiting of Euripides’ play. This structure also allows the user to form their own understanding of how Medea’s particular reimagining has been influenced by the time, place, director/playwright, society in which she was conceptualized.
Technical Aspects
This project is partially developed as a visual representation of the research interests of the developer in combination with her teaching aspirations. The initial idea for the project was the development of an interactive map...
Sources & Credits
Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama
Bosher Kathryn, Macintosh Fiona, McConnell Justine, and Rankine Patrice, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Greek Drama in the Americas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Lauriola Rosanna and Demetriou N. Kyriakos, eds. Brills’ Companion to the Reception of Euripides. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2015.