SISTERS OF MEDEA.
The Tragic Heroine across Cultures.
By
Domnica Radulescu (Washington and Lee University)
Defiant and despairing, rebellious and resistant, exiled
or entrapped, the women discussed in Domnica Radulescus Sisters of Medea. The
Tragic Heroine across Cultures are as
much part of the Western literary tradition as they have been part of our culture and
society. Sisters of Medea is an
unprecedented exploration of the tragic heroine from a feminist perspective. It offers a panoramic view of heroines from various
historical periods and geographical areas and redefines the tragic in terms of values and
predicaments specific to female characters as well as to women outside the area of
representation.
The book is largely comparative and is poised on the
fine line between the constants and variants of the tragic heroine throughout significant
historical and literary periods from Attic and Latin Tragedy, to the folklore of Old
Europe, to Nineteenth Century French novel, to twentieth century avant-garde theater.
Based on an interdisciplinary approach which combines gender studies, cultural
anthropology, archetypal analysis and performance theory, Sisters of Medea attempts
to counteract the very marginal status that the tragic heroine has acquired among scholars
and philosophers. She is brought to the
center of discussions on the tragic, not as an extension of the hero, but as an
independent figure in her own right. The
figure of Medea ultimately becomes the central symbol of the book as she challenges us to
not only resist all forms of oppression but also to subvert the very myths, artistic works
and all forms of artistic representation which have contributed in some form or another to
the exile, imprisonment, suffering, deformation or misinterpretation of women.
Domnica
Radulescu, a native of Romania, settled
in the United States in 1983 as a political refugee.
She obtained a Ph.D in Romance Languages from the University of Chicago, in
1992. She is an Associate Professor of
French and Italian Literature and co-chair of the Womens Studies Program at
Washington and Lee University. Author of a
book on André Malraux and of articles on Malraux, Camus, George Sand, as well as of a
recent book entitled Realms of Exile. Nomadism,
Diasporas and Eastern European Voices (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), Domnica
Radulescu has also been involved in theater and has worked as a theater director for more
than a decade. She has directed plays by
Eugène Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Fernando Arrabal, Jean Tardieu and is the creator and
director of the National Symposium of Theater in Academe.
ISBN 1-931948-48-8
$49.95