‘What yoke of necessity have I fallen under!’ Aidōs, ‘perfection’, and ‘debt’ as correspondences between ‘Iphigenia at Aulis’ and ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’
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2023-04-26
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en
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In this thesis, I analyse the dialogue between Euripides’ tragedy Iphigenia at Aulis (IA) and Yorgos Lanthimos’ film The Killing of a Sacred Deer (TK). The research question is: how does the characters’ approach to the external factors of aidōs, ‘perfection’, and ‘debt’ connect the narratives of IA and TK? The methodology consists of corresponsive reading and emotion studies. Corresponsive reading involves determining a work’s impression, close reading, contextualisation, and interpretation. Following Cairns (2008) and Smith (2013), emotion studies examines emotion words, emotional language, and physical descriptions of emotions. IA’s characters are highly emotional and obedient to social norms, whereas TK’s characters act in a stiff, emotionless way, taking no account of societal values. Combined, both works explore and question the essence of morals, responsibility, and human agency.
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Faculteit der Letteren