Abstract: In this paper, I read Euripides' Medea and Alexandros Papadiamantis' The Murderess as what Sara Ahmed calls "unhappy archives"—namely, as texts that challenge the history of happiness by considering those who are alienated from its promise. I suggest that Medea is deeply concerned with how and by whom happiness is defined and can thus be viewed as a resource that enables us to think against the androcentric tradition of happiness, established by classical models (e.g., from Herodotus to Aristotle). Similarly, the central figure of The Murderess , Frankojannou, who bears notable similarities to the Euripidean heroine, offers a radical redefinition of happiness, determining that "nothing is exactly what it seems." Ultimately, both texts put on center stage the struggle against the family as the "happy object," questioning the pleasure arising from our proximity to what has been traditionally deemed a constituent element of "the good life."
Afroditi Angelopoulou (Mon,) studied this question.