Stealing Fire: Political Re-Appropriation of Verse Drama in Tony Harrison’s Prometheus and Liz Lochhead’s Medea

  • Harriet MacMillan University of Edinburgh

Abstract


Critical opinion of verse drama has long considered it to be an outdated and classist form. Yet in the early 21st century, certain dramatists have provided examples of how the form may be subverted not only to expose its privileged history but to provide a context for new lines of ideological enquiry. This article examines how verse drama has been re-appropriated to serve as a vehicle for socialist and feminist concerns in Liz Lochhead's Medea and Tony Harrison's Prometheus.

Author Biography

Harriet MacMillan, University of Edinburgh
Harriet is an alumna of the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford. Her doctoral research focuses on feminist rewritings of mythology within the context of the Canongate Myths publishing project. She is also a published writer of poetry and prose and a storyteller for children.
Published
30-May-2016
How to Cite
MacMillan, Harriet. 2016. “Stealing Fire: Political Re-Appropriation of Verse Drama in Tony Harrison’s Prometheus and Liz Lochhead’s Medea”. FORUM: University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & The Arts, no. 22 (May). https://doi.org/10.2218/forum.22.1474.