The Myth of Medea and the Murder of Children PDF Download

Author: Lillian Corti
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0313305366
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Corti focuses on the meaning and importance of the act of child murder in literary treatments of the ancient myth. She insists on the connection between the structure of tragedy and the psychology of abuse, arguing that the tragedy of Medea dramatizes the violent hostility toward children, which is always potentially present in patriarchal culture despite the conspicuous emphasis on positive descriptions of parental love in officially sanctioned discourse.

Author: Amy Wygant
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 9780754659242
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Revealing the surprising trajectory of our contemporary obsession with magic, Amy Wygant here follows the figure of Medea, the great antique witch and child-murderess, through her appearances on the early modern French stage from La Péruse to Corneille to Cherubini, by way of medical treatises, visual images, cultural practices, and poetics. This cross-disciplinary study shows that Medea is our mirror, and her story is the story of cultural performance.

Author: James J. Clauss
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691043760
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
The figure of Medea has inspired artists in all fields throughout the centuries. This work examines the major representations of Medea in myth, art, and ancient and contemporary literature, as well as the philosophical, psychological and cultural questions these portrayals raise.

Author: Heike Bartel
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351538187
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Medea - simply to mention her name conjures up echoes and cross-connections from Antiquity to the present. The vengeful wife, the murderess of her own children, the frail, suicidal heroine, the archetypal Bad Mother, the smitten maiden, the barbarian, the sorceress, the abused victim, the case study for a pathology. For more than two thousand years, she has arrested the eye in paintings, reverberated in opera, called to us from the stage. She demands the most interdisciplinary of study, from ancient art to contemporary law and medicine; she is no more to be bound by any single field of study than by any single take on her character. The contributors to this wide-ranging volume are Brian Arkins, Angela J. Burns, Anthony Bushell, Richard Buxton, Peter A. Campbell, Margherita Carucci, Daniela Cavallaro, Robert Cowan, Hilary Emmett, Edith Hall, Laurence D. Hurst, Ekaterini Kepetzis, Ivar Kvistad, Catherine Leglu, Yixu Lue, Edward Phillips, Elizabeth Prettejohn, Paula Straile-Costa, John Thorburn, Isabelle Torrance, Terence Stephenson, and Amy Wygant.

Author: Christa Wolf
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 0385518579
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Medea is among the most notorious women in the canon of Greek tragedy: a woman scorned who sacrifices her own children to her jealous rage. In her gripping new novel, Christa Wolf expands this myth, revealing a fiercely independent woman ensnared in a brutal political battle. Medea, driven by her conscience to leave her corrupt homeland, arrives in Corinth with her husband, the hero Jason. He is welcomed, but she is branded the outsider—and then she discovers the appalling secret behind the king's claim to power. Unwilling to ignore the horrifying truth about the state, she becomes a threat to the king and his ruthless advisors. Then abandoned by Jason and made a public scapegoat, she is reviled as a witch and a murderess. Long a sharp-eyed political observer, Christa Wolf transforms this ancient tale into a startlingly relevant commentary on our times. Possessed of the enduring truths so treasured in the classics, and yet with a thoroughly contemporary spin, her Medea is a stunningly perceptive and probingly honest work of fiction.

Author: Jana Rivers Norton
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527543404
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This volume offers a critical yet empathic exploration of the ancient myth of Medea as immortalized by early Greek and Roman dramatists to showcase the tragic forces afoot when relational suffering remains unresolved in the lives of individuals, families and communities. Medea as a tragic figure, whose sense of isolation and betrayal interferes with her ability to form healthy attachments, reveals the human propensity for violence when the agony of unresolved grief turns to vengeance against those we hold most dear. However, metaphorically, her life story as an emblem for existential crisis serves as a psychological touchstone in the lives of early twentieth-century female authors, who struggled to find their rightful place in the world, to resolve the sorrow of unrequited love and devotion, and to reconcile experiences of societal abandonment and neglect as self-discovery.

Author: Emma Griffiths
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136000380
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
Giving access to the latest critical thinking on the subject, Medea is a comprehensive guide to sources that paints a vivid portrait of the Greek sorceress Medea, famed in myth for the murder of her children after she is banished from her own home and replaced by a new wife. Emma Griffiths brings into focus previously unexplored themes of the Medea myth, and provides an incisive introduction to the story and its history. Studying Medea’s ‘everywoman’ status – one that has caused many intricacies of her tale to be overlooked – Griffiths places the story in ancient and modern context and reveals fascinating insights into ancient Greece and its ideology, the importance of life, the role of women and the position of the outsider. In clear, user-friendly terms, the book situates the myth within analytical frameworks such as psychoanalysis, and Griffiths highlights Medea’s position in current classical study as well as her lasting appeal.

Author: J. s. Morgane
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 364058869X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 29

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Book Description
Scientific Essay from the year 2008 in the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: none, University of Vienna (Anglistik/Amerikanistik), language: English, abstract: Medea is a name familiar to everyone. The associations vary but we all know her to be the murderess of her children. This article presents the myth of Medea, the different legends and literary works, the literary history and the many changes in the portrayal of her story and character. The interpretations of her myth in different eras throws a light on our collective understanding of a figure contested throughout the ages. While Euripides allegedly introduces the child-murder as an act of revenge, the new feminist-oriented works try to lift the accusation of child-murder from Medea's shoulders. Deconstructing the archetype of 'mother', French feminism discusses the notion of a patriarchal system of thought which systematically puts woman in the passive, silenced place of 'the other'. What Medea becomes in the light of such philosophical thought is analysed here.

Author: Andrés Pociña Pérez
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004383395
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
The theme of Medea in Portuguese literature has mainly given rise to the writing of new plays on the subject. The central episode in the Portuguese rewritings in the last two centuries is the one that takes place in Corinth, i.e., the break between Medea and Jason, on the one hand, and Medea’s killing of their children in retaliation, on the other. Besides the complex play of feelings that provides this episode with very real human emotions, gender was a key issue in determining the interest that this story elicited in a society in search of social renovation, after profound political transformations – during the transition between dictatorship and democracy which happened in 1974 – that generated instability and established a requirement to find alternative rules of social intercourse in the path towards a new Portugal.

Author: Matthew L. Hunter
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 059534321X
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
While the ending of the Golden Fleece myth, Medea's killing of her beloved children, is well known, her story and her reasoning are not. She can be understood through her deeds and words, though she may not be forgiven for her act. Jason, the hero of the Argo who wrested the Golden Fleece from a tyrant at the end of world, in this work is revealed as a man with flaws. Jason and Medea fully explores the ancient Greek tragedy, following the story line and philosophical trails. The gaps in the ancient telling are filled with imaginative invention without the aid of supernatural forces. Every baby boomer has seen the 60's movie Jason and the Argonauts with the animated harpies, skeleton warriors and bronze giant. Few know the details of the complete adventure. The telling of this tale relies upon the visualization prowess of the modern reader to examine the human condition. This tale has something more than mere adventure to hold the reader's attention. Great events propel the action. Men commit murder, steal, embark on paths of war, and whisper deceits. A woman acts both selflessly for love and sacrifices everything for it. Through language and dialogue, violence is revealed as monstrous and that love may be too. The voices of women articulate great sentiments and truths. Memory and loyalty are exposed as weak foundations for trust. At the beginning and then finally, the gods, the Fates and human responsibility all take center stage in Jason and Medea.