Vol. 42 No. 1 (1994)
Research Article

Name, Memory, and Time in Racine's Trojan War Plays

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  • Nancy M. McElveen
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1994.42.1.27

Published 1994-03-01

Copyright (c) 1994 Maney

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

As naming gives heroic stature to the characters of Jean Racine's Andromache, it paradoxically reflects their demolition. Naming Andromache's ancestors focuses on the past, while naming absent family members in Iphigenia focuses on the future. Naming unifies the plays on the stage with their literary antecedents by creating a bond of familiarity between characters and audience. Absences made present by naming extend boundaries of time and space backward by coloring memories which determine the course of present actions and forward by hinting at future greatness.

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