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Orestes Story Of The Theme Of Meaning And Connotation

Posted on:2004-01-20Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:X M YingFull Text:PDF
GTID:2205360095960052Subject:Comparative Literature and World Literature
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Orestes theme is about the stoff of Orestes. Stoff is a well delineated story line , a "plot". Plot is that part of an action which can be summarized or a reduction of the content of drama to the combination of motifs which forms the hub of its action. The unity of a theme lies in the combination of motifs which is the lowest common denominator of all extant versions.In the Orestes theme, the motif of vengeance will hardly do as the only hallmark. Several other motifs constitute the sole thematic substance.The Orestes theme is a secular theme which has gone its classical heyday phase(ancient Greek ), classical hibernating phase (ancient Rome-17Century), growing phase (18Century), modern hibernating phase (19Century)and modern heyday phase (20Century).There are various versions of the Orestes story throughout literature such as Aschylus's trilogy Orestia, Sophocles's tragedy Electra, Euripides's play Electra, Orestes and Iphigenia among the Tauri, Goethe's play Iphigenia, Eugene O'Neill's trilogy Mourning Becomes Electra, Jean Paul Sartre's play The Fly and so on. To trace this characteristic and differing versions of Orestes stoff might illustrate the distinction every writer's esthetic sense, change of the history of taste and changing conceptions of tragedy.Due to supple, protean, polyvalent and independent of narrative frames, the Orestes theme is capable of integrating itself into the characteristics of thought, manners and taste of a given century, of assuming virtually all, even the most contradictory, meanings, of adapting itself to all the nuances of contemporary life by embracing all the variations. The Orestes story from classical mythology, repeated by many writers over the centuries, have become part of modern Western culture.
Keywords/Search Tags:Orestes, theme, vengeance, modernity
PDF Full Text Request
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