Zugl.: Heidelberg, Univ., Diss., 2006

Στην παρούσα εργασία θα διερευνηθεί η διακειμενική σχέση του αρχετυπικού μύθου της Φαίδρας με το θεατρικό έργο Φαίδρα (1911) του Miguel de Unamuno (Μιγκέλ ντε Ουναμούνο), το ποίημα Φαίδρα (1923) της Marina Tsvetaeva (Μαρίνα Τσβετάγιεβα) και το θεατρικό έργο Ιππόλυτος Καλυπτόμενος (1997) του Βασίλη Παπαγεωργίου, έργα που βασίστηκαν στο συγκεκριμένο λογοτεχνικό μύθο. Στόχος, λοιπόν, της παρούσας εργασίας είναι η διερεύνηση του τρόπου πρόσληψης του αρχετυπικού μύθου, όπως αυτός παρουσιάστηκε στην τραγωδία του Ευριπίδη, από τους τρεις μεταγενέστερους δημιουργούς και ο βαθμός της διακειμενικότητας του μύθου με τα σύγχρονα έργα, μέσω της ανάδειξης των ομοιοτήτων και διαφορών των ηρωίδων με το αρχαιοελληνικό τους πρότυπο. Επίσης, θα διερευνηθεί το πώς ανασημασιοδοτείται η γυναικεία μορφή της Φαίδρας στο αντίστοιχο κάθε φορά περιβάλλον, διότι, όπως αναφέρει ο Σιαφλέκης: «Το μυθικό πρόσωπο είναι αυτό που καθορίζει τη λειτουργία της μυθοπλασίας, που όπως είναι φυσικό διαφέρει ανάμεσα σε συγγραφείς, σε εποχές και λογοτεχνικά είδη». Το τελευταίο προς εξέταση έργο, ο Ιππόλυτος Καλυπτόμενος του Βασίλη Παπαγεωργίου, διαλέγεται στενά με τα ελάχιστα σωζόμενα αποσπάσματα του Ιππόλυτου Καλυπτόμενου του Ευριπίδη και επομένως θα προσπαθήσω να εντοπίσω τα στοιχεία πρόσληψης και διακειμενικότητας που υπάρχουν ανάμεσα στο διακείμενο και το αντίστοιχο υπερκείμενό του. Επιπλέον σε κάθε ένα από τα έργα θα εξεταστεί η διατήρηση ή μη των μυθημάτων και των μοτίβων ή η τροποποίηση αυτών, ώστε να αναδειχθεί πιο ξεκάθαρα η διακειμενική σχέση των έργων με το αρχέτυπό τους. / This paper aims to investigate the intertextual relationship of the archetypal myth of Phaedra in the play Phaedra (1911) of Miguel de Unamuno,in the poem Phaedra (1923) of Marina Tsvetaeva and the play Hippolytus Kalyptomenos (1997) of Vasilis Papageorgiou, projects based on this literary legend.

A little-known chamber work by Benjamin Britten is the dramatic cantata Phaedra, op.93, for mezzo-soprano and small orchestra. Among his chamber works, the solo cantata was a musical form used only once by Britten, thus making Phaedra unique among Britten's oeuvre. Britten chose a genre that flourished in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the cantata - as a vehicle for the story of Phaedra. He employs clear allusions to Baroque music in Phaedra by the use of harpsichord and continuo in the recitatives, ornamentation, and word painting. The text for Britten's setting of Phaedra is a translation of Jean Racine's Phedre by the American poet Robert Lowell. From Lowell's complete play, Britten extracted Phaedra's key speeches that deal with her three confessions of incestuous love for her stepson, Hippolytus. These monologues are set in a series of recitatives and arias that make up the entirety of this chamber cantata. In order to gain complete understanding of Phaedra, this document will begin with an investigation into the historical background of Racine's Phedre and the conventions of French tragedy from which it arose. Lowell's translation method will then be explored in comparison to Racine's play. In turn, Britten's extractions from Lowell's translation will be examined. Further, the baroque elements of the cantata and the compositional ideas inherited by Britten from Henry Purcell will be included. Finally, there will be an inspection of the character of Phaedra and Britten's interpretation through orchestration and melodic choices. Investigation into the background of Phaedra's character through Racine's play and Lowell's translation along with Britten's dramatic interpretation through music is necessary for complete comprehension of her mental state and underlying thoughts in order to bring about an emotionally accurate portrayal of the role. Britten himself labeled Phaedra a "dramatic cantata." Therefore, the drama and its text-musical relationships must be uncovered.

Diss. Universität Heidelberg, 2006.

A tragédia Hipólito de Eurípides é lida e analisada, sob o aspecto da paixão e sob as diversas perspectivas em que essa paixão se reflete e refrange. Hipólito incorre em hybris ao tratar a deusa Afrodite como a uma mulher mortal, pois não compreendeu que essa divindade deve ser respeitada e exige honras. Fedra apresenta-se como uma mulher que, dominada pela paixão por seu enteado Hipólito, incessantemente busca evitá-la e livrar-se dela; contudo, a rainha oscila nesse desejo amoroso, pois suas falas delirantes revelam desejos eróticos ocultos. Dotada de capacidade reflexiva e especulativa sobre a ação humana, ela é, no entanto, enganada pelo sofisticado discurso de sua aia. Examina-se ainda o longo discurso de Hipólito, que o mostra a odiar as mulheres e a desejar ora que não existissem, ora que não empregassem a linguagem verbal. A carta, deixada por Fedra ao suicidar-se, encontrada junto a seu cadáver, ganha, com a morte, ressonância como ponto de apoio da acusação contra Hipólito. Teseu comporta-se como um mau leitor desse documento e de seu contexto, ao pronunciar um injusto julgamento. A tradução, que acompanha o presente estudo analíticointerpretativo, serve-lhe tanto de fundamentação quanto de complemento e de esclarecimento, por ser-lhe simultânea na sua gênese e solidária na sua intenção. / The tragedy Hippolytus, by Euripide, is read and analysed, under the aspect of passion, and the different perspectives in which this passion reflects and refracts. Hippolytus incurs a hybris when he treats the goddess Aphrodite as a mortal woman, because he was not able to understand that this divinity must be respected and that she requires honors. Phaedra presents herself as a woman who, dominated by passion for his stepson Hippolytus, incessantly tries to avoid this feeling and get rid of it; however, the queen oscilates in this desire, since her delirious speeches reveal hidden erotic desires. Being able both to reflect and to especulate about human action, she is, however, cheated by the sophisticated discourse of her nurse. Hippolytus\'s long speech is examined, what shows him hating women, and, at the same time, desiring now that they don\'t exist at all, now that they couldn\'t use verbal language. The letter left by Phaedra when she commited suicide and which was found beside her corpse, assumes, with her death, the meaning of point of support for the accusation of Hippolytus. Theseus acts as a misreader of this document and its context, pronouncing an unfair judgment. The translation that follows the present analytic-interpretative study, works both as its basis and its complementation and explanation, since it is simultaneous to the study in its genesis and solidary in its intention.

In this thesis, I explore the construction of female erotic desire in Ovid’s work as it is represented in the form of mythical heroines. Phaedra-like figures appear in Ovid’s poetry as dangerous spectres of wildly inappropriate and therefore destructive, bestial, or incestuous sexuality. I consider in particular the catalogue of Phaedra-like figures in Ars Amatoria 1.283-340, Phaedra in Heroides 4, Byblis in Metamorphoses 9.439-665, and Iphis in Metamorphoses 9.666-797. Their tales act as a threat of punishment for any inappropriate desire. They represent for the normative sexual subject a sexual desire which has been excluded, and what could happen, what the normative subject could become, were he or she to transgress taboos and laws governing sexual relations. I apply the idea of the abject, as it has been formulated by Julia Kristeva and Judith Butler, in order to elucidate Ovid’s process of constructing such a subject in his poetry. I also consider Butler’s theories of the performativity of sex, gender, and kinship roles in relation to the continued maintenance of the normative and abject subject positions his poetry creates. The intersection of “performance” and performativity is crucial to the representation of the heroines as paradigms of female desire. Ovid’s engagement with his literary predecessors in the genre of tragedy, in particular Euripides’ and Sophocles’ tragedies featuring Phaedra, highlights the idea of dramatically “performing” a role, e.g., the role of incestuous step-mother. Such a spotlight on “performance” in all of these literary representations reveals the performativity of culturally defined gender and kinship roles. Ovid’s ludic representations, or “citations,” of Phaedra, I argue, both reinvest cultural stereotypes of women’s sexuality with authority through their repetition and introduce new possibilities of feminine subjectivity and sexuality through the variations in each iteration.

In this thesis, I explore the construction of female erotic desire in Ovid’s work as it is represented in the form of mythical heroines. Phaedra-like figures appear in Ovid’s poetry as dangerous spectres of wildly inappropriate and therefore destructive, bestial, or incestuous sexuality. I consider in particular the catalogue of Phaedra-like figures in Ars Amatoria 1.283-340, Phaedra in Heroides 4, Byblis in Metamorphoses 9.439-665, and Iphis in Metamorphoses 9.666-797. Their tales act as a threat of punishment for any inappropriate desire. They represent for the normative sexual subject a sexual desire which has been excluded, and what could happen, what the normative subject could become, were he or she to transgress taboos and laws governing sexual relations. I apply the idea of the abject, as it has been formulated by Julia Kristeva and Judith Butler, in order to elucidate Ovid’s process of constructing such a subject in his poetry. I also consider Butler’s theories of the performativity of sex, gender, and kinship roles in relation to the continued maintenance of the normative and abject subject positions his poetry creates. The intersection of “performance” and performativity is crucial to the representation of the heroines as paradigms of female desire. Ovid’s engagement with his literary predecessors in the genre of tragedy, in particular Euripides’ and Sophocles’ tragedies featuring Phaedra, highlights the idea of dramatically “performing” a role, e.g., the role of incestuous step-mother. Such a spotlight on “performance” in all of these literary representations reveals the performativity of culturally defined gender and kinship roles. Ovid’s ludic representations, or “citations,” of Phaedra, I argue, both reinvest cultural stereotypes of women’s sexuality with authority through their repetition and introduce new possibilities of feminine subjectivity and sexuality through the variations in each iteration.

Thesis--Zürich. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 9-15).

Thesis--Zürich. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 9-15).

La Phèdre de Sénèque. Approche philosophique et dramaturgique. Le sujet ainsi défini s'articule autour de trois centres d'intérêts majeurs. Il importe d’abord, d’analyser la genèse proche et lointaine du mythe de Phèdre. Il convient ensuite de mettre en évidence l’art dramaturgique de Sénèque ; enfin, c'est à travers la confrontation de deux visions antithétiques du monde (la parole épicurienne telle qu’elle est exprimée par la Nourrice et la vision stoïcienne de l'univers incarné par le personnage d’Hippolyte), ainsi que par l’insistance sur la dialectique des passions qui animent tour à tour chacun des protagonistes, qu’on dégagera les fondements mêmes de la lecture philosophique que propose Sénèque de sa Phaedra. / Phaedra of Seneca : dramaturgical and philosophical approach. This defined subject is divided into three important parties : First, we will analyze the near and the distant genesis of the myth of Phaedra. Then, it will be suitable to put in light the dramaturgical art of Seneca ; finally, it’s through the confrontation of two antithetical visions of the world (the epicurean speech is expressed by the nurse and the stoic vision of the universe incarnated in the Hippolytus persona) and also by the insistence of the dialectic of passions that animate every one of the protagonists that we can even draw the foundations of the philosophical ideas that has been proposed to us by Seneca in Phaedra.