Trachiniae and Its Dramatic Reception: Identities and Ideologies in Transition, Crisis and Transformation. Sofia Alagkiozidou Ro
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Trachiniae and Its Dramatic Reception: Identities and Ideologies in Transition, Crisis and Transformation. Sofia Alagkiozidou Royal Holloway, University of London Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy (Ph.D.) 1 Declaration of Authorship I Sofia Alagkiozidou hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: Date: 2 Abstract Sophocles’ Trachiniae has suffered from a long tradition of negative criticism. Although recent scholarship has rejected the view that the play is not equal to the other plays written by Sophocles, the impression that the Trachiniae is the most problematic play of the Sophoclean corpus is still dominant. Previous interpretative attempts have offered new insights into problems of form and meaning, but not a coherent interpretation, which could encompass the play as a whole. What makes the case of Trachiniae even more interesting is that, despite the neglect and the negative criticism the play has been creatively translated and adapted by a number of preeminent poets and playwrights. Their versions open a dialogue with Trachiniae as a means of expression of their own ideological output, always in relation to the ideological framework of Sophocles’ original. So far there has been no comprehensive study of this complex ideological discourse between the Trachiniae and its significant versions. The purpose of the thesis is the revision of the conception of Trachiniae as a ‘problematic play’ through the exploration of this ideological discourse. Sophocles’ Trachiniae are compared with two significant versions of it, Ezra Pound’s Women of Trachis and Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Dianeira. The argument is that in Trachiniae as well as in these two subsequent versions a process of crisis and transformation, a process of transition, occurs with significant ideological implications. Trachiniae and its successors are read as plays about identities and ideologies in transition, which encompass a twofold movement of challenging the traditional ideological background and suggesting new ideological perspectives or at least the necessity for them. In this respect, many of the interpretative difficulties of Trachiniae and many preconceptions about the two versions are seen in a new light. 3 Table of Contents Page Acknowledgments 11 Notes and Abbreviations 12 0. Introduction 13 0.1 A history of the negative criticism of Trachiniae 14 0.2 The difficulties of Trachiniae and the argument of the thesis 16 0.3 Previous interpretations and the argument of the thesis 19 0.4 The dramatic reception of Trachiniae 24 0.4.1 Hercules Oetaeus 25 0.4.1.1 Introduction to Hercules Oetaeus 25 0.4.1.2 The ideological implications of Hercules in Hercules Oetaeus 28 0.4.1.3 The ideological implications of Deianira in Hercules Oetaeus 34 0.4.2 The dramatic reception of Trachiniae up to the twentieth 37 century 0.4.3 The history of the more recent productions of Trachiniae 43 0.4.3.1 Academic 44 0.4.3.2 Professional 46 0.4.3.2.1 England 46 0.4.3.2.2 New Zealand 48 0.4.3.2.3 United States of America 48 0.4.3.2.4 Germany 49 0.4.3.2.5 Italy 50 0.4.3.2.6 France/Belgium 50 4 0.4.3.2.7 Spain/Portugal 50 0.4.3.2.8 Czech Republic 51 0.4.3.2.9 Israel 51 0.4.3.2.10 Greece 51 0.4.3.2.11 Cyprus 53 0.5 Why Pound’s Women of Trachis and Wertenbaker’s 53 Dianeira 0.5.1 Why Pound’s Women of Trachis 53 0.5.2 Why Wertenbaker’s Dianeira 55 0.6 Critical overview 56 0.6.1 Critical overview of Pound’s Women of Trachis 56 0.6.2 Critical overview of Wertenbaker’s Dianeira 59 0.7 Methodology 60 0.8 Theory 61 0.8.1 Proliferation of modern performances of Greek drama and 61 contemporary ideological movements 0.8.2 Translation for the stage and interpretation 63 0.8.3 The use of time in reception: past, present and future 65 0.8.4 The production of meaning: historicity and reception theory 67 0.8.5 Subjectivity and ideological discourse in Greek tragedy and 71 its reception 0.9 Chapter Analysis 76 1 Chapter One: Sophocles’ Trachiniae, aristocracy and 79 patriarchy in transition 1.1 Introduction 79 5 1.1.1 The argument 79 1.1.2 The date 80 1.1.3 The background 81 1.2 The challenge to Heracles’ aristocratic identity and its 83 ideological implications 1.2.1 The crisis of Heracles’ aristocratic identity in the Exodus of 83 Trachiniae 1.2.2 The moment of recognition, Heracles’ transformation and 89 its ideological significance 1.2.2.1 Introduction 89 1.2.2.2 The recognition and the transformation 91 1.2.2.3 Divine and human law, from the metaphysical to the 95 political 1.2.2.4 Towards a new political ethos that is more democratized, 97 collective and spiritual 1.2.2.5 Implicit criticism of aristocracy and violence inside and 101 outside the Athenian polis, a plea for peace 1.2.3 The purposeful open-endedness and ambiguity of the 106 apotheosis and its ideological implications: the tradition challenged and transformed but not completely overturned 1.3 The challenge to patriarchy in Trachiniae 114 1.3.1 The argument and the context 114 1.3.2 The analysis 116 1.3.2.1 Female subjectivity in Trachiniae: in favour of a middle 116 position between subject and object in progress 1.3.2.2 The exchange of gifts and female subjectivity 116 6 1.3.2.3 Maternity, suicide and female subjectivity 121 1.3.2.4 An alternative female subjectivity within the play’s 126 economy: the case of Iole 1.3.2.5 The historical evidence 128 1.3.2.6 Gender and class, female subjectivity and aristocracy 130 1.4 Conclusions 133 2 Chapter Two: Ezra Pound’s Women of Trachis, from the 134 political to the transcendental 2.1 Introduction: the context 134 2.1.1 The argument 134 2.1.2 Why Pound translated Trachiniae 135 2.1.3 Translation and modernism 144 2.1.4 The publication and the performance of Pound’s version, 148 and the critical response to it 2.1.5 The objectives of the translation 151 2.1.6 The poetic principles 154 2.2 The Women of Trachis: the text, the performative elements, 159 the connection with the Cantos 2.2.1 The text 159 2.2.1.1 A different ideological discourse 159 2.2.1.2 Job, work, trouble, assignment 159 2.2.1.3 Memo versus delton 161 2.2.1.4 Sexual desire 163 2.2.1.5 Facts 164 2.2.1.6 The element of crisis in modern terms 165 7 2.2.1.7 Herakles in the Women of Trachis: modernity instead of 166 kleos and transcendence against modernity 2.2.1.8 Milder criticism of Herakles than in Trachiniae 169 2.2.1.9 Herakles glorified: the prefiguration of the visualized 170 apotheosis 2.2.1.10 Agency in the Women of Trachis: more fortune, less 172 individual responsibility 2.2.1.11 Omission of verse 613 of Trachiniae and the transposition of 174 Herakles’ transformation 2.2.1.12 Patriarchy: not a concern in the Women of Trachis 176 2.2.2 The translation as interpretation and criticism 178 2.2.2.1 Initial Comments by Pound 179 2.2.2.2 Association with Minoru again 180 2.2.2.3 The key verse 1174 of Trachiniae 180 2.2.2.4 Scene directions 181 2.2.2.5 Brackets, repetition, capital letters 183 2.2.3 The meaning of crisis and transformation in Pound’s 184 Women of Trachis 2.2.4 The connection between the Women of Trachis and the 188 Cantos 2.3 Ideologies operating in Pound’s Women of Trachis in 192 relation to Pound’s economic and political thought 2.3.1 The coincidence of the aesthetic with the political, and of the 193 moral with the economic 2.3.2 The Social Credit 194 2.3.3 The transition: the Rock-Drill and the Women of Trachis 198 8 2.3.3.1 The transition as principal ideological movement 198 2.3.3.2 From the individual to natural and moral principles 199 2.3.3.3 Pound’s contradictory individualism 203 2.3.3.4 The new political order, the state and the law 211 2.3.3.5 Transition, transformation, renewal 217 2.4 Conclusions 221 3 Chapter Three: Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Dianeira, from 223 the personal to the political, feminist problematics and humanist objectives 3.1 Introduction: ideological framework 223 3.1.1 Introducing the play 223 3.1.2 Ideologies in Wertenbaker’s work: humanism, feminism, 227 post-feminism; and Dianeira within this ideological framework 3.1.2.1 Humanism in Wertenbaker 228 3.1.2.2 Feminism and post-feminism in Wertenbaker 229 3.1.2.3 Dianeira within this ideological framework 232 3.1.3 Wertenbaker’s Dianeira and translation 234 3.1.4 Dianeira as a radio play 238 3.2 The play 240 3.2.1 Wertenbaker’s introduction: a story within a story 240 3.2.1.1 ‘Introduction’ 240 3.2.1.2 ‘Kafeneion’ 244 3.2.2 Wertenbaker’s Dianeira: reclaiming female subjectivity 248 9 3.2.2.1 Dianeira’s crisis: patriarchal restrictions and the fear of 248 masculinity 3.2.2.2 Dianeira’s anger and moral agency in Wertenbaker: from 257 the personal to the political, the failure of patriarchy 3.2.2.3 Dianeira’s suicide in Wertenbaker: a feminist protest and 264 the failure to transgress patriarchy 3.2.3 Heracles in Wertenbaker’s Dianeira: The ‘father’ in crisis 271 without transformation 3.2.3.1 Heracles’ crisis: The crisis of masculinity and male heroism 271 in patriarchy 3.2.3.2 Heracles’ agony and death: transformation and apotheosis 281 negated, patriarchy cannot embody change 3.2.4 Hyllos, ‘a son, a promise, hope’: a positive male figure for 293 the future 3.2.5 Wertenbaker’s end: the impasse of feminism and the 301 awareness of the audience 3.3 Conclusions 306 4 Conclusions of the Thesis 307 Bibliography 311 List of Authors 311 Reviews of the Productions 335 Websites 336 Ancient Sources 337 10 Acknowledgments I would like to thank the supervisor of the thesis, Prof.