Leonard, M;
(2016)
"I Know What Has to Happen": Tragedy, Mourning, and Melancholia in Medea.
In: Honig, B and Marso, LJ, (eds.)
Politics, Theory, and Film: Critical Encounters with Lars von Trier.
(pp. 336-355).
Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.
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Abstract
This chapter explores how Medea (1988), von Trier’s version of Euripides’ play, engages with a modern politics of tragedy. In particular, it argues that von Trier uses the tragic script to explore questions of agency and sovereignty. Medea is a television adaptation based on a film script by Carl Theodor Dreyer—somehow retaining its tragic form despite von Trier’s professed disinterest in tragedy. By bringing von Trier into dialogue with Freud, Schmitt, and Kierkegaard, the chapter explores the dialectic between melancholia and responsibility that gives voice to his distinctive tragic politics. As such, von Trier both resists and embraces this tragic script and in the process reveals his insights into sovereignty and subjectivity.
Type: | Book chapter |
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Title: | "I Know What Has to Happen": Tragedy, Mourning, and Melancholia in Medea |
ISBN: | 0190600179 |
ISBN-13: | 9780190600174 |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
DOI: | 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190600181.001.0001 |
Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190600181.0... |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
Keywords: | Medea, modern tragedy, tragic politics, melancholia, responsibility, agency, sovereignty, subjectivity |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Dept of Greek and Latin |
URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1540090 |
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