悲劇女英雄：探討瑪麗娜．卡爾的三部曲中的女性與死亡

Abstract

此篇論文目標為探討卡爾如何將希臘悲劇的元素運用在她的戲劇當中，尤其是她如何描述女性角色。另外一個重點將會在她的女性角色以及她們的死亡是如何顛覆在希臘悲劇中既定的性別角色。文本分析將著重於卡爾的希臘相關作品：《The Mai》、《Portia Coughlan》以及《By the Bog of Cats…》。除了引喻希臘戲劇或改編自希臘悲劇之外，這三部作品的共通點為女性死亡的命運。具體來說，三部戲劇都有一位女性主角，而是透過這些女性在帶動戲劇的敘述。這些角色能拿來與希臘悲劇中的主要女性角色作對應。 雖然愛爾蘭戲劇與希臘悲劇是在極不同的情境下創造出，目標觀眾也極不相同。然而卡爾的角色與希臘悲劇中的主要女性角色（像是美狄亞、安提戈涅等）之間有有可對應之處。雖然希臘悲劇不從將這些主要的女性角色當作主角，這些女性角色的特徵對立於她們在卡爾與希臘戲劇敘述中的功用將會是比較的重點。最後，此篇論文將會探討卡爾的女性角色是否能被認定為相較於希臘戲劇中常見被亞理斯多德所定義的「悲劇英雄」的一種「悲劇女英雄」。

This thesis aims to explore how Carr employs elements of Greek tragedy in her plays, especially in her depictions of female characters. Another focus will be on how her female characters and their subsequent deaths subvert the gender roles expected of women in Greek tragedies. The textual analysis of Carr’s Greek-themed works will be on The Mai, Portia Coughlan, and By the Bog of Cats… Besides having Greek allusions or being loosely based on Greek tragedies, the three plays shared a feature in which the death of women seems destined. Specifically, all three plays feature a female protagonist, and it is these women that dominate the flow of narratives in the plays, which corresponds to some of the major female characters in Greek tragedies. While Irish drama and Greek tragedy are created under very different circumstances and for very different audiences, there are parallels between Carr’s characters to Greek female figures such as Medea, Antigone, etc. While Greek tragedy might not always feature such prominent female characters as main protagonists, the characterization of women as opposed their significant functions in Carr’s and Greek narrative will be a point of comparison. Lastly, the thesis will interrogate whether Carr’s female characters could be “tragic heroines” in accordance to the “tragic heroes” commonly seen in Greek tragedies and as defined by Aristotle.