Velhos crimes, novas histórias: electras reconfiguradas

Abstract

Greek myths have been constantly revisited in modern literature. Names like Ulysses, Orpheus, and Electra have figured in works that, even set in socio-historical contexts that are different from those to which these myths belong in their classical form, resort to these Greek legends to create new narratives, closer to the discursive communities to which they belong. The rewriting, by each author, of a classical character, inserting it in a new context, also provides a new analysis for comparative studies in literature, since it allows a reflection that considers not only the narrative, but also the socio-discursive characteristics presented in these texts, which must also be understood as new. In this work, our perspective is to analyze the myth of Electra, as it appears in the trilogy The Oresteia (458 BC), of Aeschylus and its Brazilian resumption: the play Senhora dos Afogados, [The Lady of the Drowned] (2012), by Nelson Rodrigues. Our goal is to show how the Brazilian playwright revisits the myth of Electra to reconfigure it and, thus, telling a new story, more pertinent to Rio de Janeiro in the 1950s. It occurs that between Aeschylus and Rodrigues, a whole range of authors established dialogues with this Greek myth, presenting in each epoch in which it reconfigures, fundamental differences so that it is understood not only the rewriting itself, but also a series of contextual and co-textual elements that witness the generic configuration of each work promoted by the author, the editor, the translator, in some cases, and even by the reader. In order to show these connections, we try to walk the path that leads from Aeschylus to Nelson Rodrigues, focusing mainly in Eugene O'Neill (1970) author with whom Nelson Rodrigues explicitly interacts when rewriting the Greek to approach his time and his society. To carry out our analysis, it takes as a basis the Differential and discursive comparison of Greek mythos proposed by Ute Heidmann (2003, 2010, 2012), that sees each piece that based on classic myth as an answer to the precedent text, refusing the idea of influence between those texts; and the studies on Discourse Analysis developed by Dominique Maingueneau (2001, 2006). As a result, it presents a Lady of the drowned that reconfigure the classic myth and tragedy genre, as far as it subvert this genre, creating a new genre, social and historically situated: a Rodrigues-like tragedy. Rodrigues presents himself as the only dramaturg analyzed in this study who reconfigures Electra myth in a more effective and more radical way, with real inversions.