La mediazione narrativa nella tragedia di Sofocle. Parte I. Conflitti impossibili, mediazioni necessarie. Parte II. Mediazioni impossibili, conflitti necessari

The first part of this study focuses on aspects of the dramatic construction of some tragedies of Sofocle (Women of Trachis, Electra, Philoctetes). In particular, it is intended to show how the Women of Trachis perform, the same type of dramaturgy as Electra and Philoctetes, that is the one in which the plot reaches the point of touching an unexpected outcome, threatening the integrity of large sections of the traditional mythical corpus, until a deus ex machina or another dramaturgical mechanism brings the story into the appropriate and well-known path. The second part of the study focuses on Oedipus at Colonus and Ajax. It analyzes the problems which arise when a character’s attempt at mediation, in order to avert an impending catastrophe, clashes against the limits posed by the presence of fate and prophecy within the storyworld: when fate-bound elements are present, mediation may not be only ineffective, but also a priori impossible. In both cases the drama, prospecting nonexistent possibilities, conceals under an appearance of illusory freedom of action the aporetic nature of a storyworld in which events are predetermined.