Adaptation against Myth
Gary Owen’s Iphigenia in Splott and the Violence of Austerity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11395742 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rebeca Gualberto (0000-0002-1474-1577, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Issue | 35 |
| Pages | 119 |
| Publication date | 2021-07-28 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0214-4808 • E-ISSN: 2171-861X |
| Publisher | Universidad de Alicante Servicio de Publicaciones (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.14198/raei.2021.35.06 |
| OpenAlex | W3183158115 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 18 |
This article explores, from the standpoint of socio-political myth-criticism, the processes of revision and adaptation carried out in Gary Owen’s 2015 play Iphigenia in Splott. The play, a dramatic monologue composed in the rhythms of slam poetry, rewrites the classical Greek myth of Iphigenia in order to denounce the profound injustice of the sacrifices demanded by austerity policies in Europe—and more specifically, in Britain—in the recession following the financial crash of 2008. Reassessing contemporary social, economic and political issues that have resulted in the marginalisation and dehumanisation of the British working class, this study probes the dramatic and mythical artefacts in Owen’s harrowing monologue by looking back to Euripides’s Iphigenia in Aulis, the classical play which inspires the title of Owen’s piece and which serves as the mythical and literary background for the story of Effie. The aim is to demonstrate how Owen’s innovative adaptation of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, slurred out in verse, resentful and agonising, speaks out a desperate plea against myth, that is, against a dominant social ethos that legitimises its own violence against the most vulnerable—those who, as in the classical myth, suffer the losses that keep our boats afloat
Art · Austerity · Injustice · Literature · Mythology · Political science · Politics · Sacrifice · Sociology · Tragedy (event · Contemporary Literature and Criticism · Gender, Feminism, and Media · History · Law · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |