Our Greek Tragic Hope
Our Greek Tragic Hope

Young Adults Overcoming Family Trauma in New Novels by Natalie Haynes and Colm Tóibín

Author(s): Edith Hall
Subject(s): Pre-WW I & WW I (1900 -1919), Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Natalie Haynes; The Children of Jocasta; Colm Tóibín; House of Names; Greek tragedy; psychological challenges; adulthood; Electra; Oedipus; Antigone; Sophocles; Jocasta; Ismene; trauma; young women
Summary/Abstract: Three years on from her debut novel "The Amber Fury" (2014), Natalie Haynes once again adapts Greek tragedy in ways designed to illuminate the psychological challenges facing teenagers and young adults. Where "The Amber Fury" is set in the contemporary world, "The Children of Jocasta" (2017) takes the readers to Bronze-Age Thebes. It retells the stories in Sophocles’ "Oedipus" and "Antigone" but from the perspectives of two women, Jocasta and Ismene, whose subjective experiences of trauma as very young women on the threshold of adulthood are too often overlooked. Colm Tóibín’s novel, "House of Names", is based on the myth of the house of Atreus and it uses the version told in Aeschylus’ trilogy "Oresteia". It is a masterpiece beneficial especially for those who have seen civil war or family trauma which are part of their experience of puberty and its aftermath. Both novels focus on the hardships and deprivations faced by the protagonists, with a ray of hope making the novels both therapeutic and emotionally sustaining.

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