Becoming Body in Euripides: Affect and Object in Bacchae, The Trojan Women, and Hecuba

In this thesis, I explore the material and immaterial flux of bodies in three plays by Euripides as they attempt to reach the Deleuzian body without organs (BwO). The first chapter, “Flesh,” focuses on the corporeal body of Dionysus in Bacchae as he transcends its boundaries to reach the BwO. The next chapter, “(No)Thing,” examines presence, absence, and elements in The Trojan Women, drawing attention to the role of affective breath. In my thesis’ final chapter, “Sound,” I analyze the sonic body of lamentation that Hecuba builds in Hecuba to territorialize herself with a refrain and deterritorialize herself to reach the BwO. The conclusion, Desire, uncovers how each of these plays relies on a centralized corpse molded by unregulated desire