The representation of Eurydice Myth in Sarah Ruhl's play Eurydice and Kathy Acker's Eurydice in the underworld

Mythology with its universal traits, becomes a backbone and an archive of cultures and societies with the help of the shared and similar features. Myths include serves multiple purposes and have various characteristics that via their functions, forms, and contents become an attraction centre in several fields. Therefore, myths became a focus for several writers, poets and playwright who assumed a responsibility to revise the perspectives and meanings. In the meantime, Orpheus and Eurydice myth is one of the myths that was highly alluring not only to the ancients, but also continues to impress contemporary readers. In the original myth and its adaptations, the focus is on Orpheus figure, whereas in the twentieth century the focus is given more to Eurydice figure and especially female authors give voice to Eurydice. In this context, two of the versions of the classical Greek myth serve this purpose, which are Kathy Acker's play Eurydice in the Underworld and Sarah Ruhl's play Eurydice. Two of the writers use the myth and mythical units by juxtaposing the new and old meaning with new ones to present the position of the character Eurydice in their works. In the process of using these mythic patterns, the writers tell the story from Eurydice's point of view, with the aim to revise and construct new meanings and viewpoints. In this sense, the aim of this thesis is to analyse the representation of Eurydice in the myth and mythical units as the examples of psychological archetypes in the works of the two writers and also present ambivalence of the myth by displaying the binary oppositions as death and life, femininity and masculinity, matriarchy and patriarchy through the lens of feminist theory.