The myth of phaedra as revealed in the dramaturgy of euripides, jean Racine and Sarah Kane

Abstract

This study investigates the representations of the Phaedra myth in various texts. In Hippolytus, Phèdre and Phaedra’s Love, Euripides, Jean Racine and Sarah Kane revive the Phaedra myth, using the smallest constitutive units of the myth, called mythemes, such as Phaedra’s love, concealment of passion and others and adding new significances to them. By observing the lines of the events and relations of units to each other, this study attempts to show how Euripides, Jean Racine and Sarah Kane represent the myth of Phaedra in their plays. In doing so, this study also shows how these playwrights alter the mythemes in order to fit their purposes. Euripides, who deals with the Phaedra myth, makes a play which presents divine intervention in human affairs. Racine, inspired by Euripides, reconstructs the myth of Phaedra and adds some new connotations to this myth. Kane deconstructs the earlier established meanings and creates new meanings with her radical adaptation.