Medea and Her Children PDF Download

Author: Ludmila Ulitskaya
Publisher: Schocken
ISBN: 0307426831
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Medea Georgievna Sinoply Mendez is an iconic figure in her Crimean village, the last remaining pure-blooded Greek in a family that has lived on that coast for centuries. Childless Medea is the touchstone of a large family, which gathers each spring and summer at her home. There are her nieces (sexy Nike and shy Masha), her nephew Georgii (who shares Medea’s devotion to the Crimea), and their friends. In this single summer, the languor of love will permeate the Crimean air, hearts will be broken, and old memories will float to consciousness, allowing us to experience not only the shifting currents of erotic attraction and competition, but also the dramatic saga of this family amid the forces of dislocation, war, and upheaval of twentieth-century Russian life.

Author: Lillian Corti
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0313305366
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Corti focuses on the meaning and importance of the act of child murder in literary treatments of the ancient myth. She insists on the connection between the structure of tragedy and the psychology of abuse, arguing that the tragedy of Medea dramatizes the violent hostility toward children, which is always potentially present in patriarchal culture despite the conspicuous emphasis on positive descriptions of parental love in officially sanctioned discourse.

Author: Christa Wolf
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 0385518579
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Medea is among the most notorious women in the canon of Greek tragedy: a woman scorned who sacrifices her own children to her jealous rage. In her gripping new novel, Christa Wolf expands this myth, revealing a fiercely independent woman ensnared in a brutal political battle. Medea, driven by her conscience to leave her corrupt homeland, arrives in Corinth with her husband, the hero Jason. He is welcomed, but she is branded the outsider—and then she discovers the appalling secret behind the king's claim to power. Unwilling to ignore the horrifying truth about the state, she becomes a threat to the king and his ruthless advisors. Then abandoned by Jason and made a public scapegoat, she is reviled as a witch and a murderess. Long a sharp-eyed political observer, Christa Wolf transforms this ancient tale into a startlingly relevant commentary on our times. Possessed of the enduring truths so treasured in the classics, and yet with a thoroughly contemporary spin, her Medea is a stunningly perceptive and probingly honest work of fiction.

Author: Steven Weisenburger
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0809069547
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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The widely acclaimed inquiry into the story that inspired Toni Morrison's "Beloved"--a nuanced portrait of the not-so-genteel Southern culture that perpetuated slavery and had such destructive effects on all who lived with it and in it. 25 illustrations.

Author: Cecelia Eaton Luschnig
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047420144
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
By looking at aspects of Medea that are largely overlooked in the criticism, this book aims at an open and multiple reading. It shows that stories presented in the drama of 5th century Athens are not unrelated to human beings who actually exist.

Author: Ludmila Ulitskaya
Publisher: Schocken
ISBN: 030777256X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
August 1991. In a sweltering New York City apartment, a group of Russian émigrés gathers round the deathbed of an artist named Alik, a charismatic character beloved by them all, especially the women who take turns nursing him as he fades from this world. Their reminiscences of the dying man and of their lives in Russia are punctuated by debates and squabbles: Whom did Alik love most? Should he be baptized before he dies, as his alcoholic wife, Nina, desperately wishes, or be reconciled to the faith of his birth by a rabbi who happens to be on hand? And what will be the meaning for them of the Yeltsin putsch, which is happening across the world in their long-lost Moscow but also right before their eyes on CNN? This marvelous group of individuals inhabits the first novel by Ludmila Ulitskaya to be published in English, a book that was shortlisted for the Russian Booker Prize and has been praised wherever translated editions have appeared. Simultaneously funny and sad, lyrical in its Russian sorrow and devastatingly keen in its observation of character, The Funeral Party introduces to our shores a wonderful writer who captures, wryly and tenderly, our complex thoughts and emotions confronting life and death, love and loss, homeland and exile.

Author: James J. Clauss
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691215081
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
From the dawn of European literature, the figure of Medea--best known as the helpmate of Jason and murderer of her own children--has inspired artists in all fields throughout all centuries. Euripides, Seneca, Corneille, Delacroix, Anouilh, Pasolini, Maria Callas, Martha Graham, Samuel Barber, and Diana Rigg are among the many who have given Medea life on stage, film, and canvas, through music and dance, from ancient Greek drama to Broadway. In seeking to understand the powerful hold Medea has had on our imaginations for nearly three millennia, a group of renowned scholars here examines the major representations of Medea in myth, art, and ancient and contemporary literature, as well as the philosophical, psychological, and cultural questions these portrayals raise. The result is a comprehensive and nuanced look at one of the most captivating mythic figures of all time. Unlike most mythic figures, whose attributes remain constant throughout mythology, Medea is continually changing in the wide variety of stories that circulated during antiquity. She appears as enchantress, helper-maiden, infanticide, fratricide, kidnapper, founder of cities, and foreigner. Not only does Medea's checkered career illuminate the opposing concepts of self and other, it also suggests the disturbing possibility of otherness within self. In addition to the editors, the contributors include Fritz Graf, Nita Krevans, Jan Bremmer, Dolores M. O'Higgins, Deborah Boedeker, Carole E. Newlands, John M. Dillon, Martha C. Nussbaum, Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, and Marianne McDonald.

Author: Euripides
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141920564
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
Alcestis/Medea/The Children of Heracles/Hippolytus 'One of the best prose translations of Euripides I have seen' Robert Fagles This selection of plays shows Euripides transforming the titanic figures of Greek myths into recognizable, fallible human beings. Medea, in which a spurned woman takes revenge upon her lover by killing her children, is one of the most shocking of all the Greek tragedies. Medea is a towering figure who demonstrates Euripides' unusual willingness to give voice to a woman's case. Alcestis is based on a magical myth in which Death is overcome, and The Children of Heracles examines conflict between might and right, while Hippolytus deals with self-destructive integrity. Translated by JOHN DAVIE

Author: Jana Rivers Norton
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527543404
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This volume offers a critical yet empathic exploration of the ancient myth of Medea as immortalized by early Greek and Roman dramatists to showcase the tragic forces afoot when relational suffering remains unresolved in the lives of individuals, families and communities. Medea as a tragic figure, whose sense of isolation and betrayal interferes with her ability to form healthy attachments, reveals the human propensity for violence when the agony of unresolved grief turns to vengeance against those we hold most dear. However, metaphorically, her life story as an emblem for existential crisis serves as a psychological touchstone in the lives of early twentieth-century female authors, who struggled to find their rightful place in the world, to resolve the sorrow of unrequited love and devotion, and to reconcile experiences of societal abandonment and neglect as self-discovery.

Author: Kate Mulvany
Publisher: Oberon Books
ISBN: 9781783193035
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
Two boys are playing a game. They fight, they laugh, they jump up and down, they play dead. Downstairs, their parents – Medea and Jason – are arguing. As the shouting gets louder, their bedroom will no longer be able to protect them from the violence of the outside world. Their iconic fate, at the hands of their mother, will ensure that they enter mythology as two of the most tragic siblings of all time. Medea is presented in association with Belvoir, Sydney and directed by Anne-Louise Sarks whose original production of the play was highly critically acclaimed. The production turns Euripides’ classic tale on its head – presenting the tragedy from the children’s perspective. Medea was awarded five 2013 Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Direction, Best Mainstage Production and Best New Australian Work. It was also awarded a prestigious Australian Writers Guild Award for Best Stage Play and nominated for four 2013 Helpmann Awards including Best Direction, Best New Australian Work and Best Play.