Are we free agents? This perennial question is addressed by tragedy when it dramatizes the struggle of individuals with supernatural forces, or maps the inner conflict of a mind divided against itself. The first part of this book follows the adaptations of four myths as they migrate from classical Greek tragedy to Seneca and on to seventeenth-century France: the stories of Agamemnon, Oedipus, Medea, and Phaedra. Detailed linguistic analysis charts the playwrights’ contrasting assumptions about agency and autonomy. In the second part, six plays by Corneille and Racine are discussed to show how the problem of agency and free will is explored in scenarios which show protagonists who are in thrall to their past, to their rulers, or to their own ideals.

In Bajazet and Mithridate Racine depicts the tragedies of characters who either wield tyrannic power or are subjected to tyranny. This international collection of essays deploys cutting-edge research to illuminate the plays and their contexts. The contributors to this volume examine Racine’s stagecraft, his exploration of space, sound and silence, his language, and the psychology of those who exercise power or who attempt to maintain their freedom in the face of oppression. The reception and reworking of his plays by contemporaries and subsequent generations round off this wide-ranging study.

In two of his most celebrated plays, Britannicus and Bérénice, Racine depicts the tragedies of characters trapped by the ideals, desires, and cruelties of ancient Rome. This international collection of essays deploys cutting-edge research to illuminate the plays and their contexts.

"Are we free agents? This perennial question is addressed by tragedy when it dramatizes the struggle of individuals with supernatural forces, or maps the inner conflict of a mind divided against itself. The first part of this book follows the adaptations of four myths as they migrate from classical Greek tragedy to Seneca and on to seventeenth century France: the stories of Agamemnon, Oedipus, Medea, and Phaedra. Detailed linguistic analysis charts the playwrights' contrasting assumptions about agency and autonomy. In the second part, six plays by Corneille and Racine are discussed to show how the problem of agency and free will is explored in scenarios which show protagonists who are in thrall to their past, to their rulers, or to their own ideals"--

The fourth volume of the “Mythology and Folklore” series, the outcome of the debates held within the international conference on Mythology and Folklore organized with the support of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Bucharest, adhere to the tripartite structure of the previous volumes: I. Myth, Mythocritique. Archetypes. Symbols; II. Mythological Reverberations. Reinterpretation of Myth: Revitalization, Demythization, Remythization. Socializing Myths; III. Folklore. Folkloric Archetypes. Folkloric Reverberations. To conclude, the 4th volume of the “Mythology and Folklore” series dwells on studies and debates regarding notions such as theatricality, socio-cultural and religious context, foregrounding various ways in which some archaic myths and rites have survived and withstood the test of time. Likewise, notions such as alterity, power, hierophany or superstition identified in myths and ancient beliefs speak of the process of development, horizontally, of inter-human relations, and, vertically, of a parallel process of awareness of the transcendental relationship between man and divinity.The fourth volume of the “Mythology and Folklore” series, the outcome of the debates held within the international conference on Mythology and Folklore organized with the support of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Bucharest, adhere to the tripartite structure of the previous volumes: I. Myth, Mythocritique. Archetypes. Symbols; II. Mythological Reverberations. Reinterpretation of Myth: Revitalization, Demythization, Remythization. Socializing Myths; III. Folklore. Folkloric Archetypes. Folkloric Reverberations. To conclude, the 4th volume of the “Mythology and Folklore” series dwells on studies and debates regarding notions such as theatricality, socio-cultural and religious context, foregrounding various ways in which some archaic myths and rites have survived and withstood the test of time. Likewise, notions such as alterity, power, hierophany or superstition identified in myths and ancient beliefs speak of the process of development, horizontally, of inter-human relations, and, vertically, of a parallel process of awareness of the transcendental relationship between man and divinity.