Mapping Medea

Abstract The late eighteenth century witnessed multiple Medeas on the stages of Europe, in the Americas, and across the Russian empire, both to the east and to the south. Performances took place in Moscow and São Paulo, in London and Lisbon, in Gotha, Stuttgart, and Venice. This volume examines the reasons why Medea attracted the attention of authors, audiences, actresses, and rulers in Europe and its colonies during the pivotal period 1750 to 1800, and to what effects. As migrant and iconoclast Medea crosses a number of eighteenth-century borders: linguistic, cultural, national, temporal, spatial, aesthetic, ethical, and generic. Moreover, the fact that late eighteenth-century playwrights, poets, composers, and choreographers all turned to one of the most problematic characters of Graeco-Roman antiquity offers a unique opportunity to examine the remarkable flexibility of the reception process itself. By studying the figure of Medea within the revolutionary context of the late eighteenth century, it is possible to explore the negotiations between court culture and the emergent metropolitan cultural centres, as well as the role of antiquity in national, imperial, and colonial politics at this time.