A Medea From The Americas: A Comparative Analysis Of Some Dramatic Revisions Of The Myth Of Medea In Chicano And Latin American Literature

This dissertation aims to study the reception of the myth of Medea in a selection of works from Chicano and Latin American Literature.Building upon Loma’s Hardwick thesis that classical texts are reinscribed in postcolonial contexts as interrogators of contemporary socio political issues,I propose that the authors analyzed in this dissertation revisit the ancient myth of Medea with specific intentions:to raise questions about the abuse of power by determined spheres of influence and to expose the marginalization of certain sectors of society,their quest for justice,the continuous suppression of the agency of the marginalized,and the clash of cultures.In Chapter 1,I offer a general exploration of the afterlife of the myth of Medea in two of the most influential versions of the myth in World Literature,namely,the Euripidean and the Senecan Medea.This chapter focuses on the comparative analysis of some important concepts that can be found in the two versions of the myth.I argue that both works’ objective is to explore human nature,while the Euripidean version questions the core values of Athenian society,the Senecan version of the myth shows the dangers that an excess of passion can bring.Chapter 2 deals with the reception of the myth of Medea in "The Hungry Woman:A Mexican Medea" by the Chicana writer Cherrie Moraga.The Medea of Moraga,a lesbian Mexican immigrant living in a dystopian and divided America,is the way Moraga uses to confront the patriarchal oppressive traditional values of Mexican and Mexican American culture and to denounce the discriminative practices of the dominant Anglo American culture.In Chapter 3,I discuss the work by the Chilean writer Juan Radrigan,"Medea Mapuche." In this version of the myth,Medea takes the form of an indigenous mapuche princess of the times of the Spanish conquest.With his Medea,Radrigan explores two levels of marginality,an internal one,expressed by solitude and abandonment,and a social one,created by oppressive dominant forces whose objective is to preserve their power by limiting the autonomy and agency of the marginalized individuals.Chapter 4 examines Jose Triana’s refashioning of the Euripidean and Senecan versions of the myth of Medea,"Medea en el espejo." The Cuban dramatist transforms Medea into a mulatto woman who rejects her African ancestry.Triana’s Medea points out some of the vices of nowadays Cuban society,like economic inequality and racial discrimination.In all the cases,the reconstruction of the identities of the different Medeas is analyzed as well as the ultimate rebellious act of every one of them,the filicide.The variety of experiences of the different Medeas described in the works under study not only confirms the complexity and actuality of the myth of Medea,but also mirrors some of the realities and problems that Latin Americans and Americans of Mexican descent face in their respective societies.Every revision of the myth of Medea is an act of resistance against colonial,neocolonial and traditional oppressive powers.