Cinematising the Euripidean and Sophoclean spatial dialectics : on the 'Skene-self' in Pasolini’s Medea and Edipo Re

Abstract

In an otherwise insightful essay on Pasolini's Edipo Re, Robert J. White denies any intention on the director's part "to reconstruct Oedipus as a Sophoclean hero" (31 ). In an equally compelling monograph on Pasolini, Maurizio Viano at least concedes that Medea is "loosely based on Euripides's and Seneca's tragedies" (240). Implicitly, however, Viano reinforces White's impression of Pasolini's ultimate disregard of the ancient tragedians' preoccupations-for the word "loosely" implies that Medea's claim to be based on Euripidean and Senecan texts is thematically no more revealing than Edipo Re's claimed adaptation of the Sophoclean tragedy. Both White and Viano concur with the general critical misconception that, to quote Kenneth Mac Kinnon, both Pasolini 's Medea and Edipo Re are "about Greek tragedy in a broad sense" ( 126).