Electra

Myth evolved into Western theater in fifth-century Athens, B.C. when mythical content and dramatic form served both as a reflection of the social structure and a record of changing ideologies characteristic of that society. In Jacobean England, more specifically in Shakespeare’s Hamlet—more than a thousand years after the classical Greek period—we will question a mythical pattern similar to that of the Greek Electra myth. In it, we will discuss a resurfacing of Electra in a society that bears uncanny points of resemblance to that of classical Greece. Then, in twentieth-century Europe, we will again watch the myth resurface as the result of an intellectual impulse similar to that which gave rise to the great plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.Western culture categorizes itself in the following ways: Male/female-logical/instinctualSpiritual/material-night/dayRational/emotion-repression/freedom. As we read the plays in this volume, we will question: Are we still locked into theses oppositions? If so, how do they effect the world we live in?

Batya Casper is a retired director and teacher of theater. She lives in Los Angeles, California.