Citation

Winkler B. Psyche (E Klett) 2017; 71(6): 479-505.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Ernst Klett Verlag)

DOI

10.21706/ps-71-6-479

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Phaedra in Racine's eponymous tragedy is the victim of a deadly shame conflict. The inherited family curse of her sexually deviant forebears is deeply inscribed in her psyche. Together with the experience of love-loss resulting from her rejection by her stepson Hip-polytus, it prompti her to embrace death by suicide as the culmination of her shame. Racine's relentless psychological, drama is structured throughout by the shame affect. The central figure js constandy haunted by the burning gaze of her divine mythological grandfather Helios. Racine sftuates the indissoluble conflicts of the tragedy in the mind of its heroinej and disseas die shame affect with the estheticizing language of the genre. Phaedra's self-destructive flight into infernal night is the last resort for a figure convulsed by lethal shame.

Language: de

Keywords

Gaze; Myth; Shame; Suicide; Theater