This structural analysis of Euripidean tragedy focuses on the dramatist's literary self-awareness as revealed in his own works and particularly in the Medea. It explores the language of the Medea as a rhetorical, theatrical construct that, to paraphrase Aristotle, achieves through the display of pity and fear the purgation of these same emotions.
"My criticism," Pietro Pucci says in his introduction, "both outlines and unravels the figures of Euripidean language and defines and questions the inflections and modulations of Euripides' discourse. . . . I limit my inquiry to some central scenes of the Medea, without losing sight of the structure of the whole play and without neglecting scenes of other plays that are pertinent to my argument."
Interpreting the Medea in accordance with Euripides' definition of his tragic aim, Pucci emphasizes the elements of pathos and pity. He describes several key elements in Euripides' metaphysics-the remedial discourse, the monument, the garden, and the sacrifice-and assesses their significance as tragic metaphors. Because his analytical method and some of his terminology draw imaginatively on the work of Jacques Derrida and other post-structuralists, this book has at once literary, sociocultural, and philosophical dimensions.