Intertheatricality and Narrative Structure in the Electra Plays
Abstract
In this chapter, the author aims to elucidate several moments of intertextuality (or, in Mueller's term, intertheatricality) between Aeschylus and the playwrights who followed him. He begins with the belief that Aeschylus's plays remained so well known throughout the fifth century that any rewriting of the same plot must contain in it some awareness of the earlier text. In particular, the author notes that both Euripides and Sophocles engage in deliberate play with their mobilised literary historical narratives. A much celebrated example is Sophocles' use of the funerary urn in his Electra; the existence of such an urn was suggested briefly by Aeschylus though not seen on stage. By far the best known and most obvious reference to Aeschylus's Libation Bearers takes place in Eurpides' version of the recognition scene.
Repository Citation
Ormand, Kirk. “Intertheatricality and Narrative Structure in the Electra Plays.” In A Companion to Aeschylus, edited by Peter Burian and Jacques Brombert, 145-157. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2023.
Publisher
Wiley
Publication Date
3-15-2023
Department
Classics
Document Type
Book Chapter
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781119072348.ch11
Notes
Chapter 11
ISBN
9781405188043
Language
English
Format
text
