Volume 4, Issue 4 (December 2025)
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Abasi S, Borzabadi Farahani H, Azizmohammadi F. (2025). Politics of Identity in Its Cultural Context: A Žižekian Study on Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. IJER. 4(4),
URL: http://ijer.hormozgan.ac.ir/article-1-461-en.html
URL: http://ijer.hormozgan.ac.ir/article-1-461-en.html
1- Department of English language, Ar.C., Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran
2- Department of English language, Ar.C., Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran ,05322537522@iau.ac.ir
3- Department of English language, Ar.C., Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran
2- Department of English language, Ar.C., Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran ,
3- Department of English language, Ar.C., Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran
Abstract: (16 Views)
Objective: This study aims to analyze Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice through Žižek’s psychoanalytic framework, focusing on how the play destabilizes conventional notions of identity, memory, and desire. The objective is to explore how Ruhl’s reimagining of Eurydice illuminates the interplay between the conscious and the repressed, and how this dynamic reframes the myth from a modern, gendered perspective.
Methods: A qualitative, interpretive textual analysis was conducted, drawing on Žižek’s concepts—particularly the death drive and the instability of subjectivity—to examine key scenes, character transformations, and symbolic structures within the play. Attention was given to narrative shifts, spatial motifs, and the reconfiguration of mythic elements within contemporary emotional and cultural contexts.
Results: The analysis reveals that Eurydice presents identity as fluid and fractured rather than fixed. Eurydice’s descent into the underworld symbolizes a loss not only of memory but of the foundational coordinates of selfhood and desire. The underworld functions as a liminal, semi-familiar space where repressed impulses surface, aligning with Žižek’s notion of the death drive. Ruhl’s domestic, humanized rendering of the myth exposes cultural patterns surrounding memory, agency, and whose experiences are legitimized. Through Eurydice’s fragmented subjectivity, the play challenges traditional narratives centered on closure, coherence, and male-dominated perspectives.
Conclusions: The study concludes that Ruhl’s Eurydice, interpreted through Žižek’s psychoanalytic lens, reconfigures the myth to emphasize fragmentation, repression, and the incomplete nature of identity. By foregrounding a modern female voice, the play reveals the emotional and cultural gaps embedded in the myth and reframes them as spaces of possibility rather than deficiency.
Methods: A qualitative, interpretive textual analysis was conducted, drawing on Žižek’s concepts—particularly the death drive and the instability of subjectivity—to examine key scenes, character transformations, and symbolic structures within the play. Attention was given to narrative shifts, spatial motifs, and the reconfiguration of mythic elements within contemporary emotional and cultural contexts.
Results: The analysis reveals that Eurydice presents identity as fluid and fractured rather than fixed. Eurydice’s descent into the underworld symbolizes a loss not only of memory but of the foundational coordinates of selfhood and desire. The underworld functions as a liminal, semi-familiar space where repressed impulses surface, aligning with Žižek’s notion of the death drive. Ruhl’s domestic, humanized rendering of the myth exposes cultural patterns surrounding memory, agency, and whose experiences are legitimized. Through Eurydice’s fragmented subjectivity, the play challenges traditional narratives centered on closure, coherence, and male-dominated perspectives.
Conclusions: The study concludes that Ruhl’s Eurydice, interpreted through Žižek’s psychoanalytic lens, reconfigures the myth to emphasize fragmentation, repression, and the incomplete nature of identity. By foregrounding a modern female voice, the play reveals the emotional and cultural gaps embedded in the myth and reframes them as spaces of possibility rather than deficiency.
Type of Study: Original |
Subject:
Educational Studies
Received: 2025/05/15 | Accepted: 2025/08/16 | Published: 2025/12/1
Received: 2025/05/15 | Accepted: 2025/08/16 | Published: 2025/12/1
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