Keywords
Amor
Recepción clásica
A Electra le sienta bien el luto
Eugene O'Neill Literary Topoi
Love
Classical Reception
Mourning Becomes Electra
Eugene O’Neill
Abstract
In the present study, two literary topoi related to love are introduced and their historical evolution from the Classical tradition towards modern culture is traced. Their realization in Eugene O'Neill's modern American tragedy Mourning Becomes Electra (1931) is also studied. These topoi are specifically: 'love out of hatred' and 'jealousy in love'. It is argued that both topoi comprise four stages, emerge from the Ancient Greek and Roman literature and evolve into modern culture, as in O'Neill's play, following the tradition. Moreover, despite critics' claim that O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electrais basically influenced by Euripides, Sophocles, and Aeschylus's retelling of the story of Orestes and Electra, the contextualization of these two topoi follows the tradition of Homer's Iliad and Ovid's Metamorphoses . Finally, in this study, the appearance of each topos in contemporary world television and cinema such as the British Becoming Jane (2007), the Iranian Shahrzad Series (2015) and the American La La Land (2016) is studied.
References
Alexander, D. (2007) “Mourning Becomes Electra”, in Bloom, H. (ed.), Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Eugene O’Neill, New York, Bloom’s Literary Criticism, 31-58.
Alexander, D. (1953) “Psychological Fate in Mourning Becomes Electra”, PMLA, 68 (5), 923-934.
Asselineau, R. (1958) “Mourning Becomes Electra as a Tragedy”, Modern Drama, 1 (3), 143–150.
Black, S. A. (2004) “‘Mourning Becomes Electra’ as a Greek Tragedy”, The Eugene O’Neill Review, 26, 166-188.
Bessadet, L. (2017) “O’Neill’s Psychological Approach of The Greek Sense of Fate, Mourning Becomes Electra”, IMPACT: International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Literature, 5 (12), 111-118.
Bese, A. (2001) “Antiquity and the Making of American Myth: The Oresteia and Mourning Becomes Electra” Journal of American Studies of Turkey, 13, 13-22.
Bhattacharyya, J. (2006) William Shakespeare’s Othello, New Delhi, Atlantic.
Burian, P. (1997) “Tragedy adapted for stages and screens: The Renaissance to the present”, in Easterling, P. E. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 228-283.
Butrica, J. L. (1981) “Propertius 3.8: Unity and Coherence”, Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-), 111, 23-30.
Campnett, A. L. (1973) Eugene O'Neill and the search for a classical form, Master thesis, University of London.
Carson, A. (1986) Eros The Bittersweet: An Essay, Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Caston, R. R. (2012) The Elegiac Passion: Jealousy in Roman Love Elegy, New York, Oxford University Press.
Catullus. (1894) The Carmina of Gaius Valerius Catullus. Translated by L. C. Smithers, London, Smithers. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:latinLit:phi0472.phi001.perseus-eng2:85
Catullus. (1893) “Poem 85”, in Merrill, E. T. (ed.), Carmina, Perseus. http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0472.phi001.perseus-lat1:85
Chirico, M. M. (2000) “Moving Fate into the Family: Tragedy Redefined in O'Neill's ‘Mourning Becomes Electra’”, The Eugene O'Neill Review, 24 (1), 81-100.
Dué, C. (2002) Homeric Variations on a Lament by Briseis, Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Dyson, C. L. (2001) Greek origins of O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra, Master thesis, California State University.
Fantham, E. (1986) “ΖΗΛΟΤΥΠΙΑ: A Brief Excursion into Sex, Violence, and Literary History”, Phoenix, 40 (1), 45-57.
Gaisser, J. H. (1971) “Structure and Tone in Tibullus, I, 6”, The American Journal of Philology, 92 (2), 202-216.
Gomez Luque, J. A. (2018) El tópico literario de la Travesía de amor: de la literatura clásica a la poesía española de los Siglos de Oro, PhD Dissertation, University of Cordoba.
Hedderel, V. P. (1993) “Sibling Rivalry in ‘Mourning Becomes Electra’ and ‘The Little Foxes’”, The Eugene O'Neill Review, 17 (1), 60-65.
Holmer, J. O. (2005) “Desdemona, Woman Warrier: ‘O! these men, these men!’ (4.3.59)”, Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, 17, 132-164.
Homer. (1924) The Iliad. Translated by A.T. Murray, Cambridge and London, Harvard University Press and William Heinemann, Ltd.
Khare, R. R. (1998) Shakespeare, Eugene O'Neill, T.S. Eliot and the Greek Tragedy, New Delhi, Mittal Publications.
Laguna Mariscal, G. (1999) “En tierra, en humo, en polvo, en sombra, en nada: historia de un tópico literario”, Anuario de Estudios Filológicos, 22, 197-213.
Laguna Mariscal, G. (2013) “Eres mi padre y mi madre: tradición literaria de un tópico amatorio atribuido a Jesús en el Evangelio”, in Roig Lanzillota, L. & Muñoz Gallarte, I. (eds.), Liber amicorum en honor del Profesor Jesús Peláez del Rosal, Córdoba, El Almendro, 207-217.
Laguna Mariscal, G. (2014a) “Amor más allá de la muerte: o cómo imaginan los poetas a los enamorados en el Infierno”, in Redondo, J. (ed.), Apocalipsi, catàbasi i mil.lenarisme a les literatures antigues i la seua recepción, Amsterdam, Adolf M. Hakkert, 11-41.
Laguna Mariscal, G. (2014b) “Regalos para enamorar (munera amoris): un tópico literario de ayer y de hoy”, in Moreno Soldevila, R. & Martos, J. (eds.), Amor y sexo en Roma: su reflejo en la literatura, Huelva, University of Huelva, 25-56.
Lansky, M. R. (2011) “Jealousy and Envy in Othello: Psychoanalytic Reflections on the Rivalrous Emotions”, in Wurmser, L. & Jarass, H. (eds.), Jealousy and Envy: New Views about Two Powerful Feelings, New York and London, The Analytic Press, 25-48.
Lee-Stecum, P. (1998) Powerplay in Tibullus: Reading Elegies Book One, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Liapis, V. (2021) “Prelude: Adapting Greek Tragedy: A Historical Perspective”, in Sidiropoulou, A. (ed.), Adapting Greek Tragedy: Contemporary Contexts for Ancient Texts, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 24-56.
Librán Moreno, M. (2011a) “Amor Agridulce”, in Moreno Soldevila, R. (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la Literatura Latina, Huelva, University of Huelva, 59-60.
Librán Moreno, M. (2011b) “Celos”, in Moreno Soldevila, R. (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la Literatura Latina, Huelva, University of Huelva, 90-92.
Librán Moreno, M. (2012) “Soph. ‘Ant’. 782 y los Motivos Amatorios de ‘Praeda Amoris y Epωmania”, Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica Nuova serie, 102 (3), 45-53.
Maleki, N., Nazemi, Z., & Laguna Mariscal, G. (2020) “The Scheme of Potiphar’s Wife: From Classical Tradition to Eugene O’Neill”, Revista de Estudios Norteamericanos, 24, 113-134.
March, J. (2001) Cassell's Dictionary of Classical Mythology, London, Cassell & Co.
Meldy, S., Junaidi, J., & Syam, E. (2020) “The Tragic Lives of Oedipus Complex and Electra Complex Sufferers in Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra”, ELSYA: Journal of English Language Studies, 2 (3), 93-100.
Miller, L. (2000) “Iphigenia: An Overlooked Influence in ‘Mourning Becomes Electra’”, The Eugene O'Neill Review, 24 (1), 101-112.
Moore, N. (1934) The Influence of the Greek Drama Upon Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra, Master Thesis, Butler University.
Moreno Soldevila, R. (2011) Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la Literatura Latina: Siglos III a. C.-II d. C, Huelva, University of Huelva.
Moreno Soldevila, R. (2018) “Motivos amatorios en las Églogas de Nemesiano”, Cuadernos de Filología Clásica. Estudios Latinos, 38 (1), 59-82.
Moreno Soldevila, R. (2019) “Motivos amatorios en los Parentalia de Ausonio”, Emerita: Revista de Lingüística y Filología Clásica, 87 (1), 139-161.
Mussari, M. (2010) Othello, New York, Marshall Cavendish.
Nazemi, Z. (2021) “Shahrzad: From Shakespeare to the Iranian Society”, Estudios de Literatura Comparada 3, Madrid, SELGYC (Sociedad Española de Literatura General y Comparada).
Nazemi, Z, Maleki, N., & Laguna Mariscal, G. (2022a) “Development of ‘Suicide for Love’ from Classical Literature to Eugene O’Neill”, Journal of English Studies, 22.
Nazemi, Z, Maleki, N., & Laguna Mariscal, G. (2022b) “New Insights into Literary Topoi: A Study of ‘Madness for Guilt and Remorse’”, Anuario de Estudios Filológicos, 45.
Nugent, S. G. (1988) “Masking Becomes Electra: O'Neill, Freud, and the Feminine”, Comparative Drama, 22 (1), 37-55.
O’Neill, E. (1988a) “Desire Under the Elms”, Complete Plays 1920-1931, New York, The Library of America, 317-378.
O’Neill, E. (1988b) “Mourning Becomes Electra”, Complete Plays 1920-1931, New York, The Library of America, 887-1054.
Ovid. (1990) “Briseis to Achilles”, Heroides 3. Translated by H. Isbell, Penguin books. https://uh.edu/~cldue/texts/heroides3.html
Ovid. (1922) Metamorphoses. Translated by B. More, Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co.
Pratt, N. T. (1956) “Aeschylus and O'Neill: Two Worlds”, The Classical Journal, 51 (4), 163-167.
Sanchez, A. (2010) “An American Tragedy: Memory and History in Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet and Mourning Becomes Electra”, Miranda, 2, 1-10.
Shea, G. W. (1998) Delia and Nemesis: The Elegies of Albius Tibullus, Maryland, University Press of America.
Toohey, P. (2014) Jealousy, New Haven and London, Yale University Press.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.