Mark Griffith
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199208791
- eISBN:
- 9780191709029
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208791.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter argues that Murray is best seen as a man who articulated contemporary concerns with supreme skill in a period of transition. It cites two main phases, or two modes to Gilbert Murray's ...
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This chapter argues that Murray is best seen as a man who articulated contemporary concerns with supreme skill in a period of transition. It cites two main phases, or two modes to Gilbert Murray's career as a Greek scholar. The first (‘mode A’) was that of an upwardly-mobile professional classicist of the conventional kind, self-consciously engaged in close philological analysis and on-going debate with rival scholars. The second (‘mode B’) was aimed instead at a wider audience, including many non-classicists, and largely eschewed the apparatus of professional scholarship.Less
This chapter argues that Murray is best seen as a man who articulated contemporary concerns with supreme skill in a period of transition. It cites two main phases, or two modes to Gilbert Murray's career as a Greek scholar. The first (‘mode A’) was that of an upwardly-mobile professional classicist of the conventional kind, self-consciously engaged in close philological analysis and on-going debate with rival scholars. The second (‘mode B’) was aimed instead at a wider audience, including many non-classicists, and largely eschewed the apparatus of professional scholarship.
Barbara Goff
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520239982
- eISBN:
- 9780520930582
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520239982.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
Some analysis privileges the practices of sacrifice, marriage, and agriculture, and the homologies among women show how the proper performance of Greek culture guarantees a healthy community and the ...
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Some analysis privileges the practices of sacrifice, marriage, and agriculture, and the homologies among women show how the proper performance of Greek culture guarantees a healthy community and the maintenance of productive relationships among gods, mortals, and animals. The study of the representation of women in Greek drama, like the representation of ritual, has expanded exponentially in the last two or more decades. In the earlier part of this century, Athenian plays were simply quarried for what they could be made to say about a generalized “status” or “position” of women. Several explanations might be adduced for why Greek drama displays so many memorable females. One possible answer would be that drama in fifth-century Athens is a radical genre that challenges social norms and exposes the constructed nature of gender identity, and, in particular, of female inferiority, by mobilizing female characters who actively resist the identifications offered by their culture.Less
Some analysis privileges the practices of sacrifice, marriage, and agriculture, and the homologies among women show how the proper performance of Greek culture guarantees a healthy community and the maintenance of productive relationships among gods, mortals, and animals. The study of the representation of women in Greek drama, like the representation of ritual, has expanded exponentially in the last two or more decades. In the earlier part of this century, Athenian plays were simply quarried for what they could be made to say about a generalized “status” or “position” of women. Several explanations might be adduced for why Greek drama displays so many memorable females. One possible answer would be that drama in fifth-century Athens is a radical genre that challenges social norms and exposes the constructed nature of gender identity, and, in particular, of female inferiority, by mobilizing female characters who actively resist the identifications offered by their culture.
Albio C. Cassio
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199245475
- eISBN:
- 9780191714993
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199245475.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter presents an outline of Epicharmean grammar and assigns to Epicharmus an important place in the linguistic history of Greek literature. It argues that Epicharmus' fragments open up a ...
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This chapter presents an outline of Epicharmean grammar and assigns to Epicharmus an important place in the linguistic history of Greek literature. It argues that Epicharmus' fragments open up a fascinating world not often studied in depth by students of Greek literature: that of a powerful colonial city whose traditions and institutions were profoundly different from those prevailing at Athens, and whose dialect, very different from the Attic, was remarkably influenced by indigenous languages. Epicharmus also provides a useful corrective to the ‘Athenocentric’ view of Greek drama.Less
This chapter presents an outline of Epicharmean grammar and assigns to Epicharmus an important place in the linguistic history of Greek literature. It argues that Epicharmus' fragments open up a fascinating world not often studied in depth by students of Greek literature: that of a powerful colonial city whose traditions and institutions were profoundly different from those prevailing at Athens, and whose dialect, very different from the Attic, was remarkably influenced by indigenous languages. Epicharmus also provides a useful corrective to the ‘Athenocentric’ view of Greek drama.
Edith Hall
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199298891
- eISBN:
- 9780191711459
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199298891.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This study explores the numerous different ways in which we can understand the relationship between the real, social world in which the Athenians lived and the theatrical roles that they invented. In ...
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This study explores the numerous different ways in which we can understand the relationship between the real, social world in which the Athenians lived and the theatrical roles that they invented. In twelve studies of role types and the theatrical conventions that contributed to their creation — including women in childbirth, drowning barbarians, horny satyrs, allegorical representations of Comedy, peasant farmers, tragic masks, and solo sung arias — the argument is advanced that the interface between ancient Greek drama and social reality must be understood as a complicated and incessant process of mutual cross-pollination.Less
This study explores the numerous different ways in which we can understand the relationship between the real, social world in which the Athenians lived and the theatrical roles that they invented. In twelve studies of role types and the theatrical conventions that contributed to their creation — including women in childbirth, drowning barbarians, horny satyrs, allegorical representations of Comedy, peasant farmers, tragic masks, and solo sung arias — the argument is advanced that the interface between ancient Greek drama and social reality must be understood as a complicated and incessant process of mutual cross-pollination.
Christopher Collard
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199208791
- eISBN:
- 9780191709029
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208791.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter considers the different aspects of Murray's engagement with Greek texts. It examines Murray's textual editing, an area of his work which is conventionally dismissed, and even ignored. ...
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This chapter considers the different aspects of Murray's engagement with Greek texts. It examines Murray's textual editing, an area of his work which is conventionally dismissed, and even ignored. These include his editing of Euripides and the Aeschylus.Less
This chapter considers the different aspects of Murray's engagement with Greek texts. It examines Murray's textual editing, an area of his work which is conventionally dismissed, and even ignored. These include his editing of Euripides and the Aeschylus.
Victoria Wohl
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691166506
- eISBN:
- 9781400866403
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691166506.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to prove the very simple proposition that in Euripidean tragedy, dramatic form is a kind of political content. The project is motivated ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to prove the very simple proposition that in Euripidean tragedy, dramatic form is a kind of political content. The project is motivated by two separate but intersecting problems. The first is the problem of Euripidean tragedy. There are eighteen extant tragedies confidently attributed to Euripides and many of them are, for lack of a better word, odd. With their disjointed, action-packed plots, comic touches, and frequent happy endings, they seem to stretch the generic boundaries of tragedy as we usually think of it. The second problem is the relation between the play and its contemporary world, the political world of democratic Athens. Tragic dramas were, almost without exception, set in the mythic past, not in the fifth-century polis, and almost never allude overtly to their contemporary moment. The remainder of the chapter discusses the meaning of politics of form by way of a brief illustration.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to prove the very simple proposition that in Euripidean tragedy, dramatic form is a kind of political content. The project is motivated by two separate but intersecting problems. The first is the problem of Euripidean tragedy. There are eighteen extant tragedies confidently attributed to Euripides and many of them are, for lack of a better word, odd. With their disjointed, action-packed plots, comic touches, and frequent happy endings, they seem to stretch the generic boundaries of tragedy as we usually think of it. The second problem is the relation between the play and its contemporary world, the political world of democratic Athens. Tragic dramas were, almost without exception, set in the mythic past, not in the fifth-century polis, and almost never allude overtly to their contemporary moment. The remainder of the chapter discusses the meaning of politics of form by way of a brief illustration.
Joshua Billings
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159232
- eISBN:
- 9781400852505
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159232.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Why did Greek tragedy and “the tragic” come to be seen as essential to conceptions of modernity? And how has this belief affected modern understandings of Greek drama? This book answers these and ...
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Why did Greek tragedy and “the tragic” come to be seen as essential to conceptions of modernity? And how has this belief affected modern understandings of Greek drama? This book answers these and related questions by tracing the emergence of the modern theory of the tragic, which was first developed around 1800 by thinkers associated with German Idealism. The book argues that the idea of the tragic arose in response to a new consciousness of history in the late eighteenth century, which spurred theorists to see Greek tragedy as both a unique, historically remote form and a timeless literary genre full of meaning for the present. The book offers a new interpretation of the theories of Schiller, Schelling, Hegel, Hölderlin, and others, as mediations between these historicizing and universalizing impulses, and shows the roots of their approaches in earlier discussions of Greek tragedy in Germany, France, and England. By examining eighteenth-century readings of tragedy and the interactions between idealist thinkers in detail, the book offers the most comprehensive historical account of the tragic to date, as well as the fullest explanation of why and how the idea was used to make sense of modernity. It argues that idealist theories remain fundamental to contemporary interpretations of Greek tragedy, and calls for a renewed engagement with philosophical questions in criticism of tragedy.Less
Why did Greek tragedy and “the tragic” come to be seen as essential to conceptions of modernity? And how has this belief affected modern understandings of Greek drama? This book answers these and related questions by tracing the emergence of the modern theory of the tragic, which was first developed around 1800 by thinkers associated with German Idealism. The book argues that the idea of the tragic arose in response to a new consciousness of history in the late eighteenth century, which spurred theorists to see Greek tragedy as both a unique, historically remote form and a timeless literary genre full of meaning for the present. The book offers a new interpretation of the theories of Schiller, Schelling, Hegel, Hölderlin, and others, as mediations between these historicizing and universalizing impulses, and shows the roots of their approaches in earlier discussions of Greek tragedy in Germany, France, and England. By examining eighteenth-century readings of tragedy and the interactions between idealist thinkers in detail, the book offers the most comprehensive historical account of the tragic to date, as well as the fullest explanation of why and how the idea was used to make sense of modernity. It argues that idealist theories remain fundamental to contemporary interpretations of Greek tragedy, and calls for a renewed engagement with philosophical questions in criticism of tragedy.
Carl Shaw
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199950942
- eISBN:
- 9780190222949
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199950942.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Satyric Play is the first book to offer an integrated analysis of Greek comedy and satyr drama. Using a literary-historical approach, it argues that comedy and satyr plays influenced each other in ...
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Satyric Play is the first book to offer an integrated analysis of Greek comedy and satyr drama. Using a literary-historical approach, it argues that comedy and satyr plays influenced each other in nearly all stages of their development. Although satyr drama was written by tragedians and employed a number of formal tragic elements, the humorous chorus of half-man, half-horse satyrs encouraged sustained interaction between poets of comedy and satyr play. From sixth-century proto-drama, through classical productions staged at the Athenian City Dionysia, to bookish Alexandrian plays of the third-century, the remains of comic and satyric performances reveal a range of literary, aesthetic, historical, religious, and geographical connections. This study analyzes the details of this interplay diachronically, considering a wide range of literary and material evidence. Ancient critics and poets allude to comic-satyric associations in surprising ways, vases indicate a common connection to kômos (revelry) song, and the plays themselves often share titles, plots, modes of humor, and even on occasion a chorus of satyrs. Understanding the complex, shifting relationship between comedy and satyr drama offers insight not only to the development of these genres, but to the nuances of ancient genre theory, and the Greek theatrical experience as a whole.Less
Satyric Play is the first book to offer an integrated analysis of Greek comedy and satyr drama. Using a literary-historical approach, it argues that comedy and satyr plays influenced each other in nearly all stages of their development. Although satyr drama was written by tragedians and employed a number of formal tragic elements, the humorous chorus of half-man, half-horse satyrs encouraged sustained interaction between poets of comedy and satyr play. From sixth-century proto-drama, through classical productions staged at the Athenian City Dionysia, to bookish Alexandrian plays of the third-century, the remains of comic and satyric performances reveal a range of literary, aesthetic, historical, religious, and geographical connections. This study analyzes the details of this interplay diachronically, considering a wide range of literary and material evidence. Ancient critics and poets allude to comic-satyric associations in surprising ways, vases indicate a common connection to kômos (revelry) song, and the plays themselves often share titles, plots, modes of humor, and even on occasion a chorus of satyrs. Understanding the complex, shifting relationship between comedy and satyr drama offers insight not only to the development of these genres, but to the nuances of ancient genre theory, and the Greek theatrical experience as a whole.
Clare L. E. Foster
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198789260
- eISBN:
- 9780191831119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198789260.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines Wilde’s championship of serious theatre and the authentic performance text by analysing his reviews of the first so-called ‘archaeological’ productions of Greek plays and ...
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This chapter examines Wilde’s championship of serious theatre and the authentic performance text by analysing his reviews of the first so-called ‘archaeological’ productions of Greek plays and Shakespeare. It offers a wider context in which to understand the rapidity of his disaffection with Greek plays, as practised among the social elite; and it suggests some ways in which his early enthusiasm for authentic Greek drama and Shakespeare is related to his own later classically informed playwriting, which combines old ideas of theatre as about and for its audiences with new ideas of drama as the appreciation of a literary object. Wilde’s own work as a dramatist straddled that change, prefigured by a comment he made in 1885: ‘An audience looks at a tragedian, but a comedian looks at his audience.’ He combines both these directions of gaze in his 1895 play The Importance of Being Earnest.Less
This chapter examines Wilde’s championship of serious theatre and the authentic performance text by analysing his reviews of the first so-called ‘archaeological’ productions of Greek plays and Shakespeare. It offers a wider context in which to understand the rapidity of his disaffection with Greek plays, as practised among the social elite; and it suggests some ways in which his early enthusiasm for authentic Greek drama and Shakespeare is related to his own later classically informed playwriting, which combines old ideas of theatre as about and for its audiences with new ideas of drama as the appreciation of a literary object. Wilde’s own work as a dramatist straddled that change, prefigured by a comment he made in 1885: ‘An audience looks at a tragedian, but a comedian looks at his audience.’ He combines both these directions of gaze in his 1895 play The Importance of Being Earnest.
Eleni Papazoglou
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199672752
- eISBN:
- 9780191774324
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199672752.003.0012
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
In the first decades of the last century, while the holy cause of ancient tragedy’s ‘revival’ was becoming established in Greece, there were some, among them Grigorios Xenopoulos, who claimed that ...
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In the first decades of the last century, while the holy cause of ancient tragedy’s ‘revival’ was becoming established in Greece, there were some, among them Grigorios Xenopoulos, who claimed that the ancient plays could not be theatrically interesting to a contemporary audience unless they were submitted to textual and performative adaptation. Their challenge to tragedy’s ‘revival’ originated from different modern perspectives, mapping out diverse and even conflicting versions of modern Greek theatrical modernity. Despite their differences, they all emphasized the importance of contemporary theatre as opposed to ancient drama, and pointed out theatrical and cultural gaps between the ancient past and the modern present at a time when most Greek intellectuals and artists were zealously confirming continuities. However, their agenda has been totally overlooked thereafter in the practice of performing tragedy in Greece. This chapter presents and discusses the various texts and contexts of this neglected modern Greek battle between Moderns and Ancients.Less
In the first decades of the last century, while the holy cause of ancient tragedy’s ‘revival’ was becoming established in Greece, there were some, among them Grigorios Xenopoulos, who claimed that the ancient plays could not be theatrically interesting to a contemporary audience unless they were submitted to textual and performative adaptation. Their challenge to tragedy’s ‘revival’ originated from different modern perspectives, mapping out diverse and even conflicting versions of modern Greek theatrical modernity. Despite their differences, they all emphasized the importance of contemporary theatre as opposed to ancient drama, and pointed out theatrical and cultural gaps between the ancient past and the modern present at a time when most Greek intellectuals and artists were zealously confirming continuities. However, their agenda has been totally overlooked thereafter in the practice of performing tragedy in Greece. This chapter presents and discusses the various texts and contexts of this neglected modern Greek battle between Moderns and Ancients.
Jason Geary
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- April 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199558551
- eISBN:
- 9780191808432
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199558551.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter provides a broad overview of the music written for productions of ancient drama from the late sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, highlighting the extent to which composers ...
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This chapter provides a broad overview of the music written for productions of ancient drama from the late sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, highlighting the extent to which composers in vastly different times and places made efforts to recover elements of Greek tragedy through the music they created. In no case did any of these musicians, including Gabrieli, Rossini, Mendelssohn, Wilhelm Taubert, and Franz Lachner, make an obvious attempt to imitate ancient music, about which very little was known for certain. Yet each of them was concerned enough with re-creating the past to employ compositional strategies designed to evoke certain presumed characteristics of Greek drama, often in ways that departed from stylistic conventions of the day.Less
This chapter provides a broad overview of the music written for productions of ancient drama from the late sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, highlighting the extent to which composers in vastly different times and places made efforts to recover elements of Greek tragedy through the music they created. In no case did any of these musicians, including Gabrieli, Rossini, Mendelssohn, Wilhelm Taubert, and Franz Lachner, make an obvious attempt to imitate ancient music, about which very little was known for certain. Yet each of them was concerned enough with re-creating the past to employ compositional strategies designed to evoke certain presumed characteristics of Greek drama, often in ways that departed from stylistic conventions of the day.
Mary Lefkowitz
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199752058
- eISBN:
- 9780190463113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199752058.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
In modern productions, translators and directors, aided by our own imaginations, edit the gods away in order to concentrate on human action. Because modern readers do not try to comprehend the ...
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In modern productions, translators and directors, aided by our own imaginations, edit the gods away in order to concentrate on human action. Because modern readers do not try to comprehend the theology of an ancient and foreign civilization, they fail to see that in Euripides’ plays (as in dramas by other poets), it is the gods who control what happens in human life, even when the human characters in the dramas are unable to imagine the full extent of the gods’ power. The chapter discusses the modern tendency to omit divine action in Euripides’ Trojan Women, and inability to recognize its presence in Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus, even though Aristotle understood that the contrast between human ignorance and divine omniscience was a central feature of Athenian drama. It also explains why this book discusses the roles played by individual gods, as well as the function of divine epiphanies in general.Less
In modern productions, translators and directors, aided by our own imaginations, edit the gods away in order to concentrate on human action. Because modern readers do not try to comprehend the theology of an ancient and foreign civilization, they fail to see that in Euripides’ plays (as in dramas by other poets), it is the gods who control what happens in human life, even when the human characters in the dramas are unable to imagine the full extent of the gods’ power. The chapter discusses the modern tendency to omit divine action in Euripides’ Trojan Women, and inability to recognize its presence in Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus, even though Aristotle understood that the contrast between human ignorance and divine omniscience was a central feature of Athenian drama. It also explains why this book discusses the roles played by individual gods, as well as the function of divine epiphanies in general.
Elke Steinmeyer
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199296101
- eISBN:
- 9780191712135
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296101.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, World History: BCE to 500CE
In 1998, four years after the first free elections in South Africa, the Cape Town producer (and actor) Mark Fleishman and his team put a new adaptation of the Electra myth on the stage of the ...
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In 1998, four years after the first free elections in South Africa, the Cape Town producer (and actor) Mark Fleishman and his team put a new adaptation of the Electra myth on the stage of the Hiddingh Hall theatre on the Orange Street Campus of the University of Cape Town, under the title In the City of Paradise. The play is set against the backdrop of the immediately post-apartheid era in South Africa. This transitional period from a former repressive political system to democracy was a crucial one in South African history. The impact of Greek drama as protest under the apartheid regime has been well documented, but this chapter considers its continuing impact in the new South Africa in the context of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The chapter examines the continuing importance of workshop theatre as a means of individual and community transformation. It addresses the continuing fluidity of myth in modern contexts and argues that free versions of Greek plays have potential to critique easy assumptions about the relationship between truth and reconciliation.Less
In 1998, four years after the first free elections in South Africa, the Cape Town producer (and actor) Mark Fleishman and his team put a new adaptation of the Electra myth on the stage of the Hiddingh Hall theatre on the Orange Street Campus of the University of Cape Town, under the title In the City of Paradise. The play is set against the backdrop of the immediately post-apartheid era in South Africa. This transitional period from a former repressive political system to democracy was a crucial one in South African history. The impact of Greek drama as protest under the apartheid regime has been well documented, but this chapter considers its continuing impact in the new South Africa in the context of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The chapter examines the continuing importance of workshop theatre as a means of individual and community transformation. It addresses the continuing fluidity of myth in modern contexts and argues that free versions of Greek plays have potential to critique easy assumptions about the relationship between truth and reconciliation.
Nurit Yaari
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198746676
- eISBN:
- 9780191808531
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198746676.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
How does a theatrical tradition emerge in the fields of dramatic writing and artistic performance? Can a culture, in which theatre played no part in the past, create a theatrical tradition in real ...
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How does a theatrical tradition emerge in the fields of dramatic writing and artistic performance? Can a culture, in which theatre played no part in the past, create a theatrical tradition in real time—and how? What was the contribution of classical Greek drama to the evolution of Israeli theatre? How do political and social conditions affect the encounter between cultures—and what role do they play in creating a theatre with a distinctive identity? This book, the first of its kind, attempts to answer these and other questions, by examining the reception of classical Greek drama in the Israeli theatre over the last seventy years. It deals with dramatic and aesthetic issues while analysing translations, adaptations, new writing, mise-en-scène, and ‘post dramatic’ performances of classical Greek drama that were created and staged at key points of the development of Israeli culture amidst fateful political, social, and cultural events in the country’s history.Less
How does a theatrical tradition emerge in the fields of dramatic writing and artistic performance? Can a culture, in which theatre played no part in the past, create a theatrical tradition in real time—and how? What was the contribution of classical Greek drama to the evolution of Israeli theatre? How do political and social conditions affect the encounter between cultures—and what role do they play in creating a theatre with a distinctive identity? This book, the first of its kind, attempts to answer these and other questions, by examining the reception of classical Greek drama in the Israeli theatre over the last seventy years. It deals with dramatic and aesthetic issues while analysing translations, adaptations, new writing, mise-en-scène, and ‘post dramatic’ performances of classical Greek drama that were created and staged at key points of the development of Israeli culture amidst fateful political, social, and cultural events in the country’s history.
Melinda Powers
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198777359
- eISBN:
- 9780191823077
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198777359.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The Introduction begins by providing a brief overview of the reception of Greek drama by under-represented communities in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America. After situating the book’s ...
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The Introduction begins by providing a brief overview of the reception of Greek drama by under-represented communities in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America. After situating the book’s topic within this historical timeline, it proceeds to explain the development of the project, the focus on live theatre, the choice of productions, and the reasons for them. It defines terms, provides disclaimers, explains the methodology used, clarifies the topic, situates it within its historical moment, summarizes each of the chapters, describes the development of the ‘democratic turn’ in Greek drama, and finally speculates on the reasons for the appeal of Greek drama to artists working with under-represented communities.Less
The Introduction begins by providing a brief overview of the reception of Greek drama by under-represented communities in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America. After situating the book’s topic within this historical timeline, it proceeds to explain the development of the project, the focus on live theatre, the choice of productions, and the reasons for them. It defines terms, provides disclaimers, explains the methodology used, clarifies the topic, situates it within its historical moment, summarizes each of the chapters, describes the development of the ‘democratic turn’ in Greek drama, and finally speculates on the reasons for the appeal of Greek drama to artists working with under-represented communities.
Mary Lefkowitz
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199752058
- eISBN:
- 9780190463113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199752058.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
At the end of dramas the gods may not have solved all problems, that does not mean that Euripides sought to have his original audiences cease to honor them. On the contrary, it reminds us that the ...
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At the end of dramas the gods may not have solved all problems, that does not mean that Euripides sought to have his original audiences cease to honor them. On the contrary, it reminds us that the gods exist to please themselves, not in order to make humans happy. The codas to five dramas (even though they were probably not written by Euripides) state explicitly and without any hedging that the gods do what they choose to do and that humans only understand what has happened after the fact, by which time it is too late to prevent further suffering and loss. This outlook is shared by the other dramatists. Theatrical performance gives the audience a fleeting opportunity to look down upon human life with all its limitations from a distance, as a god might see it, without the usual mist of partial understanding that clouds mortal eyes.Less
At the end of dramas the gods may not have solved all problems, that does not mean that Euripides sought to have his original audiences cease to honor them. On the contrary, it reminds us that the gods exist to please themselves, not in order to make humans happy. The codas to five dramas (even though they were probably not written by Euripides) state explicitly and without any hedging that the gods do what they choose to do and that humans only understand what has happened after the fact, by which time it is too late to prevent further suffering and loss. This outlook is shared by the other dramatists. Theatrical performance gives the audience a fleeting opportunity to look down upon human life with all its limitations from a distance, as a god might see it, without the usual mist of partial understanding that clouds mortal eyes.
Fiona Hobden and Amanda Wrigley (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474412599
- eISBN:
- 9781474449526
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474412599.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
Ancient Greece has inspired television producers and captivated viewing audiences in the United Kingdom for over half a century. By examining how and why political, social and cultural narratives of ...
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Ancient Greece has inspired television producers and captivated viewing audiences in the United Kingdom for over half a century. By examining how and why political, social and cultural narratives of Greece have been constructed through television’s distinctive audiovisual languages, and also in relation to its influential sister-medium radio, this volume explores the nature and function of these public engagements with the written and material remains of the Hellenic past. Through ten case studies drawn from feature programmes, educational broadcasts, children’s animations, theatre play productions, dramatic fiction and documentaries broadcast across the decades, this collection offers wide-ranging insights into the significance of ancient Greece on British television.Less
Ancient Greece has inspired television producers and captivated viewing audiences in the United Kingdom for over half a century. By examining how and why political, social and cultural narratives of Greece have been constructed through television’s distinctive audiovisual languages, and also in relation to its influential sister-medium radio, this volume explores the nature and function of these public engagements with the written and material remains of the Hellenic past. Through ten case studies drawn from feature programmes, educational broadcasts, children’s animations, theatre play productions, dramatic fiction and documentaries broadcast across the decades, this collection offers wide-ranging insights into the significance of ancient Greece on British television.
Mary Lefkowitz
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199752058
- eISBN:
- 9780190463113
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199752058.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Although modern readers continue to believe that in his dramas Euripides was questioning the nature and sometimes even the existence of the gods, and that through his dramas he sought to reveal the ...
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Although modern readers continue to believe that in his dramas Euripides was questioning the nature and sometimes even the existence of the gods, and that through his dramas he sought to reveal the flaws in the traditional religious beliefs of his own time, this book argues that instead of seeking to undermine ancient religion, Euripides is describing with a brutal realism what the gods are like, and reminding his mortal audience of the limitations of human understanding. The question of Euripides’ attitude towards the gods is not merely of antiquarian interest. It affects the interpretation of his plays. By portraying the gods as unpredictably kind, negligent, vindictive, and cruel, Euripides was not offering his audiences preferable alternatives. Instead the dramas remind his audience not to expect consistent rewards from the gods for their virtues, and not to imagine that the gods will treat mortals with the attention and care that they might receive from fellow human beings. Like Homer in the Iliad, Euripides through his dramas is making a statement about the nature of the world and human life, terrible and dispassionate. The book also explains why modern readers have been too ready to believe ancient stories about Euripides’ connections with the radical thinkers of his own day. It demonstrates that how divine action is an integral aspect of all surviving drama, whether or not the gods appear physically ex machina above the stage.Less
Although modern readers continue to believe that in his dramas Euripides was questioning the nature and sometimes even the existence of the gods, and that through his dramas he sought to reveal the flaws in the traditional religious beliefs of his own time, this book argues that instead of seeking to undermine ancient religion, Euripides is describing with a brutal realism what the gods are like, and reminding his mortal audience of the limitations of human understanding. The question of Euripides’ attitude towards the gods is not merely of antiquarian interest. It affects the interpretation of his plays. By portraying the gods as unpredictably kind, negligent, vindictive, and cruel, Euripides was not offering his audiences preferable alternatives. Instead the dramas remind his audience not to expect consistent rewards from the gods for their virtues, and not to imagine that the gods will treat mortals with the attention and care that they might receive from fellow human beings. Like Homer in the Iliad, Euripides through his dramas is making a statement about the nature of the world and human life, terrible and dispassionate. The book also explains why modern readers have been too ready to believe ancient stories about Euripides’ connections with the radical thinkers of his own day. It demonstrates that how divine action is an integral aspect of all surviving drama, whether or not the gods appear physically ex machina above the stage.
J. Alison Rosenblitt
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198767152
- eISBN:
- 9780191821332
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198767152.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Chapter 3 discusses the translations from Greek and Latin which constitute a formative element in Cummings’ relationship to the Classics and which are reproduced in full for the first time in the ...
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Chapter 3 discusses the translations from Greek and Latin which constitute a formative element in Cummings’ relationship to the Classics and which are reproduced in full for the first time in the edition of Cummings’ work included in E.E. Cummings’ Modernism and the Classics. The chapter contrasts the foregrounding of ruin, distance, and mortality in Cummings’ Horatian translations with the evocation of a highly emotional sense of presence and eternity in his translations from the Greek, and also considers Cummings’ approach to metre and form. I argue that Cummings could not resolve the gap between the more modernist instincts of his translation practice and his more nineteenth-century translation theory, and therefore abandoned translation—taking the best of what he had learned forward into his own original compositions.Less
Chapter 3 discusses the translations from Greek and Latin which constitute a formative element in Cummings’ relationship to the Classics and which are reproduced in full for the first time in the edition of Cummings’ work included in E.E. Cummings’ Modernism and the Classics. The chapter contrasts the foregrounding of ruin, distance, and mortality in Cummings’ Horatian translations with the evocation of a highly emotional sense of presence and eternity in his translations from the Greek, and also considers Cummings’ approach to metre and form. I argue that Cummings could not resolve the gap between the more modernist instincts of his translation practice and his more nineteenth-century translation theory, and therefore abandoned translation—taking the best of what he had learned forward into his own original compositions.
S.P. Oakley
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199688982
- eISBN:
- 9780191768088
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199688982.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter explores what Dodds achieved in his Bacchae (1944, 1960). It presents some of the archival material that relates to the genesis of the commentary. It contains both discussion of Dodds’ ...
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This chapter explores what Dodds achieved in his Bacchae (1944, 1960). It presents some of the archival material that relates to the genesis of the commentary. It contains both discussion of Dodds’ overall conception of the play and analysis of detailed notes. These notes are compared with earlier commentaries, especially the commentary of J.E. Sandys. Dodds’ ideal of classical scholarship, which is illustrated in his inaugural lecture about humanism and technique, is discussed, and the problem of why Dodds devoted so much attention to textual criticism, despite his worries about its scholastic nature, is also considered.Less
This chapter explores what Dodds achieved in his Bacchae (1944, 1960). It presents some of the archival material that relates to the genesis of the commentary. It contains both discussion of Dodds’ overall conception of the play and analysis of detailed notes. These notes are compared with earlier commentaries, especially the commentary of J.E. Sandys. Dodds’ ideal of classical scholarship, which is illustrated in his inaugural lecture about humanism and technique, is discussed, and the problem of why Dodds devoted so much attention to textual criticism, despite his worries about its scholastic nature, is also considered.
