STUDIES AND RESEARCH
Theagenes and Esmeralda — Ancient Greek Novel and TV Serial
Theagenes and Esmeralda is a comparative
study that deals with the similarities between the Greek
novel in antiquity and contemporary TV »soap operas«. By
analyzing the characters, motives and narrative strategies,
the paper is trying to establish a thesis that the tastes
of the broad general audiences haven’t changed that much
in almost 2000 years that keep the two genres apart. The
Greek antiquity love novel presumably developed on the
East Mediterranean during the Hellenistic period — a time
in which the world grew significantly bigger, causing the
individual to feel lost and insecure. These are the grounds
that prepared a new genre — novel — dealing with individual
heroes and their quest for happiness in the big, strange
and hostile world. Even though the »soap opera« is a product
of the 20th century media development, its roots are in
the literature written after the French Revolution — a
period of »the open society« not unlike the Hellenistic
one, a period in which, once again, the individual comes
before the community.
The main characters of both genres
are unnaturally beautiful and almost equally so steadfast
in their moral convictions. They face the blows of the
destiny with dignity and strength, trying to preserve their
individual integrity during all the hardships they encounter,
thus providing the comfortable role-model for their audience
whose lives are bleak and uneventful, and who hope that
one day they will, too, be rewarded for their patience
and suffering. Motives of the both genres include all sorts
of dramatic events that hardly ever happen in real life
— mistaken identities, children lost and found, pirates,
robberies, inimical family members, poisons, abductions...
The goal, of course, is to bring some adventure and excitement
to the life of the audience, enabling members of the audience
to identify with the main characters by means of enlivening
adventures in their minds, this time with themselves in
the main roles. Generally, the stories in both genres are
told chronologically, starting with the first meeting of
the main characters and finishing with the Happy End, after
which nothing really interesting will happen. The unrealistic,
»adventurous« time of both genres consists of semi-detached
dramatic episodes, order of which can be overturned any
way we like, because the causal relationship between them
is irrelevant — the only relevant thing are large quantities
of dramatic events. It should be also noticed that most
of the motives, characters and narrative strategies of
both genres could also be found in one of the greatest
works of literature ever, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliet.
Compared to the work of genius, Greek antiquity
novel and »soap-opera« will surely lose the battle. But
the so-called »trivial genres«, compared with each other,
can also prove to be interesting material and, if nothing
else, harmless and entertaining pastime.
Martina Aničić |
