The musical analysis of Greek tragedy has traditionally been limited to studies of meter and metatheatrical language. This dissertation seeks to establish a new approach to ancient dramatic song by demonstrating that the linguistic pitch accents of tragic lyrics often trace the melodic contours of their lost musical settings. In the papyri and inscriptions that preserve music notation alongside Greek lyrics, intonation and melody are often coordinated according to set principles, which are well established by previous scholarship. Through the creation of software that applies these historical principles to tragic texts, I demonstrate that stanzas sung to the same melody are significantly more similar in their accentual contours than control groups that do not share a melody. In many instances, the accents of these paired texts consistently trace the same pitch contours, allowing us to reconstruct the shape of the original melody with a high degree of confidence.After a general introduction, the dissertation’s first two chapters address the historical basis for this approach. Chapter 1 reviews the evidence for the musical structure of tragic song, confirming the widely held view that paired stanzas were generally set to the same melody. Chapter 2 turns to the evidence for the role of pitch accents in ancient Greek song, including the ancient testimony and musical documents, and a computational study of accent patterns across all the lyrics of Aeschylus’ surviving tragedies. The methodology developed in these first two chapters is applied in two case studies, in which I reconstruct and interpret the accentual melodies of select tragic lyrics. Chapter 3 analyzes the musical design of the chorus’ entrance song in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, along with sections of the Kommos from Choephori. In both cases, I argue, melody would play an integral role in highlighting the themes of repetition and reversal within the Oresteia. Chapter 4 turns to the music of Euripides’ Medea, a play that has been central to previous discussions of accent in tragic music. Reading the lyrics and accentual melodies within the framework of musical history as understood in the fifth century bce, I argue that Euripides uses a contrast between ‘old’ and ‘new’ melodic styles to position his chorus at a turning point within literary history. In the dissertation’s final chapter, I address the reception of Medea’s music in a fragmentary comedy, the so-called Alphabet Tragedy of Callias. Together, these interpretive chapters provide a template for future work applying methods of musical analysis to the accentual melodies of ancient Greek song.

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Ma thèse s'intitule “Le mythe de Médée. De Euripide à Pier Paolo Pasolini et Christa Wolf”. Il s'agit d'une analyse comparatiste, dans le but de démontrer les liens existants entre l'écriture – ou bien la réécriture – et les événements culturels et politiques du pays des deux auteurs. Dans le cas spécifique, la comparaison est axée sur le film de Pasolini (1969) et le roman de Christa Wolf (1996), deux textes que j'ai considéré comme particulièrement significatifs en raison de la biographie des deux auteurs et du moment historique dans lequel ces ouvrages furent élaborée. En effet, ma thèse ne se veut pas comme un travail exclusivement littéraire, avec une analyse des éléments esthétiques et stylistiques des textes, mais j'ai cherché d'élaborer un discours qui touche aussi les aspects historiques et les processus liés à la réélaboration du mythe de Médée. J'ai structuré ma thèse dans deux chapitres parallèles, pour mieux permettre la comparaison entre les deux ouvrages. Après une partie dédiée aux points de rupture biographique (par. 1), je me suis concentrée sur l'analyse de la réécriture du mythe. J'ai prêté une attention particulière aux conditions sociopolitiques de l'Allemagne et de l'Italie à la sortie du film et du roman, pour passer enfin à l'analyse des sources littéraires, notamment celles du domaine anthropologique - Pasolini - et féministes – Wolf – en démontrant la stratification complexe qui est à la base d'une réélaboration du mythe. ( par. 2) En deuxième lieu, une longue partie de la thèse est dédiée à l'analyse détaillée du film de Pasolini et du roman de Christa Wolf, en concentrant l'attention sur les aspects originels apportés par les deux auteurs ainsi qu'à l'élaboration d'une poétique liée aux changements culturels et politiques de leurs temps (par. 3). Enfin, j'ai consacrée une partie à la réception, en montrant jusqu'à quels point les troubles de la société finissent pour altérer une lecture objective de l'œuvre (par. 4). Le dernier chapitre porte enfin sur les œuvres qui suivirent la publication de Médée, en montrant comment la réélaboration de ce mythe a influencé le travail dans les années suivants. (par. 5) La partie sur la "Medea" de Pier Paolo Pasolini a été rédigée en français, celle sur "Medea.Stimmen" en italien. / My thesis is titled “The Myth of Medea. From Euripide to Pier Paolo Pasolini and Christa Wolf”. The work is a comparative analysis with the purpose of establishing links between the writings - better called rewritings - and political as much as cultural events in the countries of the two modern authors. My thesis focuses on the comparison between the movie by Pasolini (1969) and the novel by Christa Wolf (1996): I consider the two texts very meaningful because of their close connection with both biography of the authors and the historical moment in which the works have been developed.In fact, the work in my thesis does not only concern a literary analysis from an aesthetic and stilistic point of view, but I tried, moreover, to deepen those historical and political events that generated the re-elaboration of Euripide's myth of Medea.I wanted to structure my research in two parallel parts, in order to allow a better comparison between the two works. After a section dedicated to the biographies of the authors (Chapter 1), I focused my study on the actual rewriting of the myth. A particular care was given to the socio-political context in Germany and Italy in the times of release of the novel and the movie, and I afterwards payed a particular attention on the analysis of literary sources: above all in the anthropological field as concerning Pasolini, and feminist one for Christa Wolf, to demonstrate the complex stratification which is the foundation of a re-elaboration of myth (Ch. 2). Secondly, a substantial section of my thesis is dedicated to a detailed analysis of the movie by Pasolini and the novel by Christa Wolf, with an attention on the innovative aspects brought by the two authors, as well as to a poetic linked to political and cultural changes (Ch. 3). I dedicated a special part to the reception of the two works, showing how deep social and political troubles of then were a distort point of view on the works (Ch. 4). The last chapter, finally, analyze the works after the releas of Medea, proving how those re-elaborations of myth influenced the works in the following years (Ch. 5). The part concerning “Medea” by Pier Paolo Pasolin was written in French, while the part on Christa Wolf's “Medea. Stimmen” is in Italian.

Cette analyse littéraire examine le mythe de Médée et ses redites par Euripide et Christa Wolf. Depuis les années 1950, de nombreuses autrices occidentales révisionnistes se sont replongées dans la mythologie pour trouver l’inspiration artistique afin de combler le manque de représentation du genre dans l'héritage culturel de l’Occident. L'un des objectifs de ces écrivaines est de raconter l'histoire du point de vue de l'Autre réduit au silence, une façon de déconstruire l'apriorité du genre et les stéréotypes imposés par ce qu'Adorno appelle la raison formelle. Explorer les mythes, c'est les adapter à notre époque et détecter leur insistance et leur pertinence intemporelle. Cet exercice permet aux femmes d'exprimer leur version de l'histoire afin de déstabiliser la rhétorique et les archétypes patriarcaux. Pour ébranler et déconstruire les stéréotypes de la féminité fabriqués par la raison formelle occidentale, il est essentiel de se tourner vers la figure mythique de Médée en tant que femme. En effet, comment la comparaison entre la Médée de Christa Wolf et celle d'Euripide peut-elle produire une esthétique permettant d'émanciper la princesse de Colchide et les femmes de la domination de la raison masculine occidentale ? Pour répondre à cette question, la théorie dialectique d'Adorno et l'esthétique de Christa Wolf sont prises comme axe analytique entre les versions d'Euripide et de Wolf du mythe de Médée. Comme le montre cette étude comparative, la Médée d'Euripide, la mère meurtrière dépourvue de sophrosyne, reste un archétype vivant de la féminité à la fin des années 90 en Allemagne. De même, Euripide et Wolf brossent un portrait cohérent des femmes en tant que servantes de la nature, mais contrairement à son homologue grecque, Christa Wolf insiste sur le caractère naturel du corps en tant qu'esthétique épistémologique qui permet au non-identique et aux différences de surgir. Medea : A Modern Retelling juxtaposé à la tragédie d'Euripide crée un dialogue qui explore l'écriture corporelle et son utilité pour évaluer l'agentivité de chacun dans le monde des significations. / This literary analysis examines the Medea myth and its retellings by Euripides and Christa Wolf. Since the 1950s, many Western revisionist mythmaking authors have dived back into mythology to find artistic inspiration to fill the gender gap within the Western world’s overly masculinized cultural heritage. One of the purposes of these authors is to tell the story from the silenced Other’s vantage point of view, a way to deconstruct gender apriority and stereotypes imposed by what Adorno calls formal reason. To explore myths is to recast them into modern days and detect their timeless insistence and relevance. This exercise allows women to voice their side of the story to destabilize the patriarchal rhetoric and archetypes. To shake and deconstruct stereotypes of womanhood made by Western formal reason, it is essential to turn toward Medea’s mythical figure as a woman. Indeed, how can the comparison between Christa Wolf’s and Euripides’ Medea produce an aesthetics that emancipates the princess of Colchis and women from Western males’ domination? To answer this interrogation, this literary research takes Adorno’s dialectical theory and Wolf’s aesthetics as the analytical axis of comparison between Euripides’ and Wolf’s versions of the Medea myth. As this comparison concludes, Euripides’ Medea, the murderous mother devoid of sophrosyne, remains an archetype of womanhood in the late 90s’ imagnation. Also, Euripides and Wolf draw a consistent image of women as nature’s minions. However, unlike the Greek tragedian, Christa Wolf insists on the naturalness of the body as an epistemological aesthetics that allows the non-identical to shine forth. Medea: A Modern Retelling juxtaposed with Euripides’ tragedy creates a dialogue that explores corporeal writing and its usefulness in assessing one’s agency into the world of meanings.

Senecan Medea in Deutschsprachiger Raum between the 18th century and today Analyzing the persistence of a mythological figure like Medea, who has endured through time and space, is a complex affair. It becomes apparent how the evolution of the heroine over the centuries assumes new meanings and adapts to constantly changing sociocultural contexts. Medea, already present in archaic mythological material, transcends the boundaries of strictly mythological meaning, and initially achieves full canonization in Greek and then in Latin theater. Indeed, through the tragedy of Euripides in 431 BC, a clear and well-recognizable “biographical career” is attributed to her, which later continues with the Senecan tragedy. In this work, the heroine from Colchis increasingly takes on the traits of a perfidious sorceress, approaching the anti-stoic essence of the monster. When she then seems to almost fade into oblivion completely throughout late antiquity and the Middle Ages, Medea later reappears on the international stage of the Renaissance and the Baroque era. Only from the end of the 18th century did Medea become widespread across Europe and proliferate in the new media of the 20th and 21st centuries on all continents. Thus, Medea's power is nurtured by the creative force of writers, dramatists, and librettists. Particularly in the European context, the Medea adaptations in German-speaking areas have so far enjoyed a lesser degree of systematics: they have been excluded from a coherent overall picture that also considered the influence of the archetype. For this reason, I have decided to focus this research work on the rewritings in German: here, literature picks up the classical myth and creates new versions that make use of unique and unrepeatable circumstances. Since the Euripidean tragedy is considered the most viewed tragic archetype, the model used here will be the Senecan tragedy, whose influence on the European and non-European dramaturgical tradition has often been overlooked. The structure of this work includes a first methodological chapter that lays the theoretical foundations for an in-depth analysis of the selected works, which are examined in a diachronic course in the second chapter. This chapter explores the survival of the heroine from the Classical and Medieval period to the modern and contemporary era, with particular attention to the various historical-cultural changes. The aim of this first part is to capture the often elusive, but just as often simply unexamined dependencies, of some German works on each other and from the Latin model. The result of this operation is a chronological and reasoned list of 86 German rewritings from the 18th to the 21st century in the form of a table, which constitutes an appendix to the research work. The second part begins with the third chapter, which contains the analysis of six representative works of different readings: furor and magic in Medea in Corinth (1786) by Friedrich Maximilian Klinger; Love and melodrama in Medea in Corinto (1814) by Johann Simon Mayr; the ethnic and political question in Medea in Prag (1949) by Max Zweig; the postmodern fragmentation in Medeamaterial by Heiner Müller (1983); the gender struggle in Der Schlaf der Vernunft (1984) by Ula Stöckl; and the psychoanalytic interpretation in M., nach Euripides (1984) by George Tabori. The six works selected here are considered exemplary for certain thematic and stylistic aspects and are essential to examine the Medea story from a critical perspective. The final chapter turns its gaze to the 21st century, highlighting the ongoing relevance of Medea as a source of new artistic truths, with a focus on Mein und dein Herz (Medeia) (2007) by Nino Haratischwili. The work concludes with an examination of potential future research directions and developments of the theme. The importance of Medea as a cultural, overarching icon is emphasized, which continues to deserve attention in academic studies.

Il s’agit de l’emploi de la technologie numérique dans la mise en scène de la tragédie grecque antique, en d’autres termes, de la réception de la tragédie grecque au sein du théâtre digital. En tant que performance digitale la tragédie grecque semble fonctionner comme un kaléidoscope du temps ; tout à la fois comme une lentille ou un miroir écrasé, où se développent  un jeu, un « aller-retour » entre les identités et les qualités : spectateur / citoyen, politique / religieux, espace-temps du mythe / temps actuel, présence / absence. Grâce à l’emploi de la technologie et d’équivalents digitaux, les artistes reconceptualisent une série de notions de la tragédie telles que la communauté, la cité, l’hybris, le masque, le conflit, le tragique, et ils proposent des expériences sensorielles équivalentes au spectateur contemporain : les médias numériques deviennent un équivalent de la parole. Oikos, le palais royal, lieu devant lequel et au sein duquel se déroulent la plupart des événements et conflits, est remplacé par l’écran palimpseste ; on est dans l’image dans laquelle on vit désormais, c’est au sein de l’écran que l’on produit l’Histoire. La convention du masque conduit à l’expérimentation avec des technologies sonores. La fonction politique de la tragédie grecque et la création de l’effet de communauté, se produisent désormais par le biais de la technologie numérique. Les spectateurs forment des communautés éphémères lors de leurs réunions dans l’environnement technologique, la fragmentation rhizomatique de la scène « cache » la communauté, pour la transformer en une communauté virtuelle. Enfin, c’est le tragique qui se développe sur scène en tant qu’idée et phénomène performatif. / The thesis focuses on the use of digital technology in the staging of Greek Tragedy that is, the reception of Greek tragedy in the digital theatre. Greek tragedy, when digitally staged, seems to function as a kaleidoscope of our times; sometimes a lens and at others a shattered mirror, where a game, a "toing and froing" between identities and qualities exists: spectator/citizen, political/religious, time-space of myth/actual current time, presence/absence. With the use of technology and of digital equivalents, artists re-conceptualize a series of key notions such as the community, the city, the hubris, the mask, the conflict, the tragic and create equivalent effects for the contemporary spectator: Digital media becomes the equivalent of discourse. The “oikos”, the royal palace, in front of and within which most events and conflicts occur, is replaced by the screen-palimpsest: it is within the image that we live, we clash, we make history. The mask convention leads to experimentation with sound technologies. The much-discussed political function of tragedy in the context of democratic Athens and the building of a sense of community is now realised through digital technology. Spectators form ephemeral communities in their meeting within the technological environment, the rhizomatic fragmentation of the theatre stage, "hides" the community to transform it into a virtual community. In the end, it is the tragic that is being developed as an idea and a performative phenomenon. / Στο επίκεντρο βρίσκεται η χρήση της ψηφιακής τεχνολογίας στη σκηνοθεσία της αρχαίας ελληνικής τραγωδίας, δηλαδή η πρόσληψη της αρχαίας ελληνικής τραγωδίας στο ψηφιακό θέατρο. H αρχαία ελληνική τραγωδία ως ψηφιακή παράσταση, μοιάζει να λειτουργεί ως καλειδοσκόπιο του καιρού∙ άλλοτε ως φακός και κάποιες φορές ως θρυμματισμένος καθρέπτης, όπου ένα παιχνίδι, ένα «πήγαινε-έλα» αναπτύσσεται ανάμεσα στις ταυτότητες και τις ποιότητες : θεατής/πολίτης, πολιτικό/θρησκευτικό, ο χωροχρόνος του μύθου/ο πραγματικός τρέχων χρόνος, παρουσία/απουσία. Με τη χρήση της τεχνολογίας και των ψηφιακών ισοδυνάμων, οι καλλιτέχνες επανοηματοδοτούν στο παρόν μια σειρά κομβικών εννοιών για την τραγωδία, όπως η κοινότητα, η πόλις, η ύβρις, η μάσκα, η σύγκρουση, το τραγικό και δημιουργούν ισοδύναμες αισθήσεις και εντυπώσεις στον σύγχρονο θεατή: Τα ψηφιακά μέσα γίνονται ισοδύναμο του λόγου. Ο οίκος, το βασιλικό ανάκτορο μπροστά και εντός του οποίου συντελούνται τα περισσότερα γεγονότα και οι συγκρούσεις, αντικαθίσταται από την οθόνη παλίμψηστο: μέσα στην εικόνα ζούμε, συγκρουόμαστε, παράγουμε ιστορία. Η σύμβαση της μάσκας οδηγεί στον πειραματισμό με τις τεχνολογίες του ήχου. Η πολυσυζητημένη πολιτική λειτουργία της τραγωδίας στο πλαίσιο της δημοκρατικής Αθήνας και η δημιουργία του αισθήματος κοινότητας δημιουργείται πλέον μέσα από την ψηφιακή τεχνολογία. Oι θεατές σχηματίζουν εφήμερες κοινότητες στη συνάντησή τους μέσα στο τεχνολογικό περιβάλλον, η ριζωματική θραυσματοποίηση της θεατρικής σκηνής, «κρύβει» την κοινότητα, για να τη μετατρέψει σε εικονική κοινότητα. Τέλος, είναι το τραγικό που αναπτύσσεται ως ιδέα και ως επιτελεστικό φαινόμενο.

Encore est le récit d’une jeune femme hantée par un avortement qui lui semble n’avoir jamais eu lieu et pourtant se rappelle sans cesse à elle, comme un mauvais rêve. C’est l’histoire de son désir, écrite contre la domestication de son corps, et par laquelle elle tente de se réapproprier le néant de son ventre et d’y faire apparaître les traces de sa mémoire. Mon essai porte sur Le Bleu du ciel de Georges Bataille, dont j’ai voulu interroger les « monstrueuses anomalies » — expression qu’emploie Bataille lui-même dans la préface de son livre. Comment faire un monstre de récit, comment transgresser la loi d’un genre réputé sans contrainte ? Mon projet aura été de mettre en évidence, plutôt que la monstruosité de l’histoire racontée, le travail, ou la besogne, dans l’écriture de ce récit, de l’informe et de la chance, termes que j’emprunte à Bataille et soumets au jeu de sa fiction. / Encore (Again) tells the story of a young woman haunted by an abortion, which she thinks has never happened to her, and yet keeps hounding her, especially in her dreams. This is the story of her desire, held against the domestication of her body, and through it, she tries to repossess her womb and make the traces of her past appear, beyond the visible. My essay addresses the « freakish anomalies » of Georges Bataille’s Blue of Noon (Le Bleu du ciel), as Bataille himself qualified his novel in his preface. How to transgress a genre that has no law, no constraint ? Rather than analyzing the freakishness of the narrative or the characters, I have tried to understand how writing was here performed, or tasked, by formless and chance, two concepts that I have borrowed from Bataille and confronted to his fiction.

My purpose in this study is twofold. Firstly, I intend to examine the existence of honour in Greek society by an analysis of its presentation in works of Greek literature. In order to achieve this, I shall first examine the values of the Homeric, heroic society so that a picture of the code of honour that was used in those times, might be established. This code of honour provided the foundation upon which later honourable behaviour was based and from which it grew; it is, therefore, a necessary addition in a study such as this. Then, I shall proceed to a study of Euripides' Medea and Hippolytus, two plays that firmly incorporate the motif of honour and revenge. Secondly, I intend to examine a few examples of modern societies. The purpose of this is to ascertain whether any relationship between archaic, classical and contemporary cultures can be established. Shared values and beliefs will be examined in order to determine any possible similarities between cultures and societies that are chronologically separated by hundreds of years. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

Revision of Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 323-339) and index.