Re-Visioning Myth Modern and Contemporary Drama by Women

by Babbage, Frances

• ISBN13: 9780719067525
• ISBN10: 0719067529
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-12-15
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

Re-Visioning Mythis the first in-depth assessment of "re-vision" as a phenomenon in women's drama, examining the diverse ways in which classical myth narratives have been reworked by women playwrights for the European stage. This study explores the ideological and aesthetic potential of such practice and silmultaneously exposes the tensions inherent in attempts to challenge narratives that have fundamentally shaped Western thought. From tracing the persistence of classical myths in contemporary culture and the significance of this in shaping gendered identities and opportunities, through to analysis of individual plays and productions, Babbage reveals how myths have served in the theater as "pretexts" for ideological debate; enabling exploration of the fragile borders between mythic and the everyday and how revision has been regarded, not unproblematically, as a route towards restructuring the self. This makes compelling reading for anyone interested in women's writing for the theater or wider practices of adaptation in literature and performance.

Author Biography

Re-visioning myth is compelling reading for anyone interested in women's writing for the theatre or in wider practices of adaptation in literature and performance. Frances Babbage is Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance at the University of Sheffield

Table of Contents

Introduction * The lie of the land * Theorising myth * Re-visioning myth * Staging myth: Hella Haasse’s A Thread in the Dark * Political acts * Furiously funny: The Same Old Story and Medea, by Franca Rame and Dario Fo * ‘And she stopped the world’: Sarah Daniels’ Neaptide
 * Out of characte * Nothing sacred: Maureen Duffy’s Rites * ‘I don’t know what got into me’: Caryl Churchill’s and David Lan’s A Mouthful of Birds * Making silence speak: Timberlake Wertenbaker’s The Love of the Nightingale: * Stages of subjectivity * The voices within: Serena Sartori, Renata Coluccini and Demeter Beneath the Sand *  Hélène Cixous and the scene of the unconscious: The Name of Oedipus: Song of the * Forbidden Body * The scene of history: Cixous’s The Perjured City, or the Awakening of the Furies * New directions * Shock treatment: Sarah Kane and Phaedra’s Love * ‘I’ve got the feeling we’ll be eternal’: Hrafnhildur Hagalín’s Easy Now, Electra * In pieces: Gilla Cremer’s m.e.d.e.a * Bibliography