Date of Award
5-2018
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts - English
Department
English
First Advisor
Dr. Kevin West
Second Advisor
Dr. Ericka Hoagland
Third Advisor
Dr. Joyce Johnston
Fourth Advisor
Dr. Courtney Wooten
Abstract
For centuries male-dominated societies have developed their own culturally constructed images of the socially acceptable and socially deviant mothers. The thesis explores how the Grecian, Caribbean, and Irish cultures of Euripides’ Medea (431 BC), Steve Carter’s Pecong (1990), and Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats (1998) respectively, all based on the Medea myth, commonly define the social deviant (m)other and condemn her for her “otherness.” It also discusses the limitations of each society’s decision to label the Medea-figure as socially deviant. Euripides creates an impossible dichotomy between the culturally constructed concepts of heroism and motherhood, which he locates in separate male and female personas. Medea must cast off the female persona in order to enact her revenge, whereas the adaptations of the play prove the embodiment of two gendered personas is unnecessary to react to the mistreatment they experience; such is the progress women have made since the fifth century.
Repository Citation
Kramer, Christina Faye, "The Socially Deviant (M)other in Euripides' "Medea" and Two Modern Adaptations" (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 148.
https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/148
Creative Commons License
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Included in
Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Women's Studies Commons
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