Racine's Classical Hinterlands

This book explores the ways in which the French dramatist Jean Racine (1630-1699) uses offstage spaces in six of his major tragedies which have classical Greek or Roman settings. It argues that these offstage spaces or ‘Hinterlands’, which are apparent only in the minds and imaginations of the plays’ characters, have an important influence on what happens on stage. In many cases these Hinterlands have a mythic form, or are inhabited by classical divinities or ancestors; such powers function for the plays’ characters as the source of moral values, while also intervening to disrupt their certainties and their sense of selfhood.