RECOGNITION AND THE CHARACTER OF SENECA'S MEDEA. (December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bexley, Erica
• Is Part Of: Cambridge classical journal. Volume 62(2016)
• Page Start: 31
• Page End: 51
• Publication Date: 2016-12
• Subjects: Classical philology -- Periodicals; Classical literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 880.05
• DOI: 10.1017/S1750270516000051
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1750-2705

Abstract

Abstract : This article examines the character and identity of Seneca's Medea. Focusing on the recognition scene at the end of the play, I investigate how Medea constructs herself both as a literary figure and as an implied human personality. The concluding scene of Seneca's Medea raises crucial questions about self-coherence and recognisability: in contrast to other moments of anagnōrisis in Greco-Roman drama, it confirms the pre-existing facets of Medea's identity, rather than revealing new ones. This concept of recognition as self-confirmation is also integral to Seneca's Stoic view of human selfhood, and Medea's use of Stoic principles in this play reinforces her dual status as textual entity and quasi-person.