Permanenza e problematicità del classico nelle riscritture novecentesche di Elettra: il caso transnazionale di O'Neill e Giraudoux

The revengeful Electrahassurvived over the centuries, precisely because guiltand violencecharacterize every human era.However, it is mainlyin the XXcentury that significant rewritings of classical myth have flourished in Western literature. The articlesketches that renewal reconsidering the relationship between Greek tragedies and modern plays written by O’Neill and Giraudoux. In particular, this connectionhas to be meant not only as atribute to the long-established tradition of the myth, but essentially as a challengingreflection on the way modern playwrights move towards the resolution oftragic fatality.Then, a comparative analysis of places and symbolic worldsin which the plays aresetwill be suggested, as well as an observation aboutthe survival of tragic chorus. This will lead to explorethe meaningful existenceof thefemale characterthat revealsonstageher dire need of an ordinary emotional life. Thearticlewill, therefore,focus on the sociologic implications the heroine embodiesboth in classical sources,wheretheantinomy between heavenly patriarchy and chthonic matriarchywas displayed,and in puritan America presented by O’Neill alongwith Giraudoux’s France during the 1930s.