Mythopoetic Aspects in the Plays of Elena Isaeva

This article analyzes the mythopoetic dimensions of the plays by Elena Isaeva (born 1966): “David and Bathsheba”, “Judith”, and “The Two Wives of Paris”. Additionally, the text of the play titled “Nonplay for Two” is used as auxiliary material. A step­by­step analysis reveals the trajectory of the playwright’s myth­ making strategy: from close reproduction of mythological plots, through the retention of a mythological framework enriched with original concepts, to a syncretic synthesis of heterogeneous mythological traditions. Notably, the play “The Two Wives of Paris” illustrates both the reception and transformation of the mythopoetics of Innokenty F. Annensky and Euripides. In Isaeva’s artistic treatment, the themes of love and ethics undergo a substantive conceptualization, articulating her perspective on pressing sociocultural issues of the present. The methodology combines hermeneutic analysis with historical­literary, intertextual, and cross­cultural approaches, thereby enabling the reconstruction of the playwright’s ethical­aesthetic program. The study concludes that Isaeva’s model of mythologization may be described as a neoromantic attempt to overcome social alienation through the re­interpretation of archetypal meanings.

Elena Isaeva, mythopoetics, mythologization, neomyth, plays 'David and Bathsheba', 'Judith', 'The Two Wives of Paris', 'Nonplay for Two', Euripides, I.F. Annensky