Graduation Date
Spring 2025
Document Type
Project
Program
Master of Arts degree with a major in English, emphasis in Applied English Studies
Committee Chair Name
Dr. Renee Byrd
Committee Chair Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
Dr. Janelle Adsit
Second Committee Member Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Keywords
Language, Adaptation, Meaning making as representation, Othering, Social critique, Regimes of representation, Euripides, Medea, The Hungry Woman, Cherrie Moraga, Neil Labute, John Fisher, Cultural studies, Rhetoric
Subject Categories
English
Abstract
Language is power. Language has the ability to create, destroy, challenge, change, and enforce. Understanding the role that language plays within systems of power allows authors to use their own language(s) to question and challenge meaning made through regimes of representation through the practice of adaptation as social critique. This project’s close reading and cultural studies / rhetoric informed analysis of Euripides’ the Medea and four modern adaptations—Cherríe Moraga’s The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea, John Fisher’s “Medea: The Musical”, Neil LaBute’s “Medea: Redux” from Bash Latter Day Plays, and Shoestring Revue’s “Medea in Disneyland”—provides an example of the importance of historicizing and contextualizing ancient texts, and demonstrates how adapting them for a modern audience opens conversations that challenge and / or reinforce the societal and cultural norms, orthodoxies, and ideals of a specific socio-historical moment. Through the practice of adaptation as social critique, authors and audiences can engage in reconceptualization, reinterpretation, and transposition of our present and future societies as acts of resistance and means of challenging dominant narratives that permeate society at unique socio-historical moments.
Citation Style
MLA
Recommended Citation
Sanchez, Samantha M., "The social critic: challenging cultural norms through the adaptation and interpretation of Euripides' Medea" (2025). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 2279.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/2279