FAILURE OF THE RITUAL-MYTHIC RITE OF INITIATION IN EDWARD ALBEE‘S PLAY THE GOAT OR, WHO IS SYLVIA? (NOTES TOWARD A DEFINITION OF TRAGEDY)

Abstract

As the subject of its analysis, this paper takes up American playwright Edward Albee‘s provocative play The Goat or, who is Sylvia? (Notes Toward a Definition of Tragedy) (2002), with the aim to examine the relationship Albee establishes via his play with the traditional legacy of the tragic genre. Referencing primarily the conception of rites of passage posited by Victor Turner, The Goat is analyzed within the mythopoetic framework as a potential site for reinterpretation of the ritual-mythic rite of initiation, also taking into consideration Joseph Campbell‘s theory of the monomyth. Furthermore, by employing Linda Hutcheon‘s insights on parody as a postmodernist technique of challenging the positivist-humanistic legacy of literature, this paper elaborates on Albee‘s toying with tradition and language via metatheatricality, metatextuality, intertextuality, pastiche, and ironized discourse. Inside the framework of this interpretation, The Goat‘s main protagonist Martin is perceived as a tragic character trapped inside the liminal (middle) phase of the initiation rite, which he cannot leave given that re-integration into a society burdened by ideologies which particularize one‘s unity with the world is undesirable. Albee indeed provides a new definition of tragedy with his play The Goat, by indicating the failure of the pharmakos, i.e. ritual animal raised to the level of the tragic protagonist, to cause catharsis on the scene today. Catharsis is instead transferred into the audience, who leave the theatre feeling discomfort. In this play, as within the rest of his oeuvre, Albee is interested in the subject of love: its survival in contemporary times, as well as its multiple forms and transformative potential. By tackling taboos, he confronts us with ourselves hoping to induce the beginning of self-awareness and a feeling of integral connection amongst ourselves, to awaken the connection with the past which we have sacrificed to the gods of contemporary civilization.