The Phaedra Syndrome: Of Shame and Guilt in DramaRodopi, 1993 - 142 páginas Originating probably in some oral cautionary tale, the Phaedra story illustrates a peculiar pattern of transgression and retribution. This Phaedra syndrome provided inspiration for many major writers from Euripides to Gabriele d'Annunzio. The present book offers a close re-reading and a re-assessment of four acknowledged masterpieces - Euripides' Hippolutos, Seneca's Phaedra, Lope de Vega's Castigo sin venganza and Racine's Phèdre: together with Lope's Italian source. Matteo Bandello's Novella 44, they all deal with the old tale or none of its analogues. While paying minute comparative attention to the texts, it aims at clarifying the relevance of each work for the meandrous evolution of religious beliefs and ethical criteria in the history of European society, ranging from Democritus' effort to react against his contemporaries' archaic shame-culture attitudes to Latin Stoicism, to the syncretic Baroque outlook in siglo de oro drama and to the radical puritanical inwardness of French Jansenism. The last two chapters offer an original interpretation of Phèdre as the supreme poetic utterance of Racine's confusion and perplexity in front of the unresolved contradictions in his faith; a case is made in the Conclusion the view that the puzzled and puzzling mood of this mysterious play exemplifies the new mind-set that was paving the way for Enlightenment rationalism and the ensuing dechristianisation of the Western intelligentsia. |
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aidôs Aricie assertion audience Aurora aware Bandello Batín behaviour Belleforest Casandra castigo sin venganza century character Christian comedia confession conscience conscious contradiction Counter-Reformation crime culture death death-wish Democritus described despite Dieu dieux divine dramatic Duke Duke's ethical Euripides evil fact fate father fear Federico feigned Ferrara François de Belleforest French God's Greek heroine Hipp Hippolutos Hippolyte Hippolyte's honour code husband incest inner innocent La Curée Latin Les Rougon-Macquart Lope Lope de Vega Lope's lovers lust Marquis mind Minos moral motivation Nurse Nurse's Nutrix Oenone Oenone's Parisina passion peripeteia Phaed Phaedra syndrome Phèdre play playwright plot psychological pudor punishment Queen Racine Racine's rational reader reason Renaissance reputation responsible revenge sanctions Seneca Seneca's Phaedra sense of guilt sexual shame shame-culture slanderous social society soliloquy Spanish speech spiritual stepmother stepson Stoic story suicide super-ego Thésée's Theseus tradition tragedy Troezen utter Venus virtue virtuous wife woman words young
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Página 8 - I have pondered on the causes of a life's shipwreck. I think that our lives are worse than the mind's quality would warrant. There are many who know virtue. We know the good, we apprehend it clearly. But we can't bring it to achievement.
Página 8 - ... lives are worse than the mind's quality would warrant. There are many who know virtue. We know the good, we apprehend it clearly. But we can't bring it to achievement. Some are betrayed by their own laziness, and others value some other pleasure above virtue. There are many pleasures in a woman's life — long gossiping talks and leisure, that sweet curse. Then there is shame that thwarts us. Shame is of two kinds. The one is harmless, but the other a plague. For clarity's sake, we should not...