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Electra and the Empty Urn

Author: Mark Ringer

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2000-11-09

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 0807864137

Metatheater, or "theater within theater," is a critical approach often used in studies of Shakespearian or modern drama. Breaking new ground in the study of ancient Greek tragedy, Mark Ringer applies the concept of metatheatricality to the work of Sophocles. His innovative analysis sheds light on Sophocles' technical ingenuity and reveals previously unrecognized facets of fifth-century performative irony. Ringer analyzes the layers of theatrical self-awareness in all seven Sophoclean tragedies, giving special attention to Electra, the playwright's most metatheatrical work. He focuses on plays within plays, characters who appear to be in rivalry with their playwright in "scripting" their dramas, and the various roles that characters assume in their attempts to deceive other characters or even themselves. Ringer also examines instances of literal role playing, exploring the implications of the Greek convention of sharing multiple roles among only three actors. Sophocles has long been praised as one of the masters of dramatic irony. Awareness of Sophoclean metatheater, Ringer shows, deepens our appreciation of that irony and reveals the playwright's keen awareness of his art. Originally published in 1998. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Close Relations

Author: Paul Monaghan

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2020-05-15

Total Pages: 365

ISBN-13: 1527551407

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The “spatial turn” of the 1990s has inspired many academics to re-evaluate the importance of space and time within their own disciplines and to engage in productive dialogue with other disciplines whose spatial focus intersects with their own. This book applies insights and approaches generated by the “spatial turn” to Greek and Roman theatre. The title evokes the “close relations” that exist between the many aspects and notions of space-time and their complex interweaving, between the disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches that are needed to understand complex spatial phenomena, between notions of space in general and those of theatrical space, and between Greek and Roman theatre as it existed in antiquity and as it has been “received,” interpreted, and transformed throughout history ever since.

Euripides' Electra

Author: H. M. Roisman

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2012-10-09

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 0806186305

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Among the best-known Greek tragedies, Electra is also one of the plays students of Greek often read in the original language. It tells the story of how Electra and her brother, Orestes, avenge the murder of their father, Agamemnon, by their mother and her lover. H. M. Roisman and C. A. E. Luschnig have developed a new edition of this seminal tragedy designed for twenty-first-century classrooms. Included with the Greek text are a useful introduction, line-by-line commentary, and other materials in English, all intended to support intermediate and advanced undergraduate students. Electra's gripping story and almost contemporary feel help make the play accessible and interesting to modern audiences. The liberties Euripides took with the traditional myth and the playwright's attitudes toward the gods can inspire fruitful classroom discussion about fifth-century Athenian thought, manners, and morals. Roisman and Luschnig invite readers to compare Euripides' treatment of the myth with those of Aeschylus and Sophocles and with variant presentations in epic and lyric poetry, later drama, and modern film. The introduction also places the play in historical context and describes conventions of the Greek theater specific to the work. Extensive appendices provide a complete metrical analysis of the play, helpful notes on grammar and syntax, an index of verbs, and a Greek-English glossary. In short, the authors have included everything students need to support and enhance their reading of Electra in its original language.

Electra

Author: Batya Casper

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2019-04-26

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1476635285

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Shakespeare's Hamlet--written 1,000 years after the classical Greek period--follows a narrative pattern similar to that of the Greek Electra myth, and it isn't the only story to do so. We see signs of Electra's influence again in the 20th-century works of Oscar Wilde, Eugene O'Neill and T.S. Eliot, among others. This revised and updated edition will look more closely at the influence of Electra on popular culture throughout history and the questions it poses regarding oppositions such as logic versus instinct, night versus day and repression versus freedom.

How Greek Tragedy Works

Author: Brian Kulick

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-12-30

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 1000291472

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How Greek Tragedy Works is a journey through the hidden meanings and dual nature of Greek tragedy, drawing on its foremost dramatists to bring about a deeper understanding of how and why to engage with these enduring plays. Brian Kulick dispels the trepidation that many readers feel with regard to classical texts by equipping them with ways in which they can unpack the hidden meanings of these plays. He focuses on three of the key texts of Greek theatre: Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Euripides' The Bacchae, and Sophocles' Electra, and uses them to tease out the core principles of the theatre-making and storytelling impulses. By encouraging us to read between the lines like this, he also enables us to read these and other Greek tragedies as artists' manifestos, equipping us not only to understand tragedy itself, but also to interpret what the great playwrights had to say about the nature of plays and drama. This is an indispensable guide for anyone who finds themselves confronted with tackling the Greek classics, whether as a reader, scholar, student, or director.

The Secret Life of Theater

Author: Brian Kulick

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-01-08

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 0429817541

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What is the secret DNA of theater? What makes it unique from its sister arts? Why was it invented? Why does it persist? And now, in such an advanced technological age, why do we still feel compelled to return to a mode of expression that was invented over two thousand years ago? These are some of the foundational questions that are asked in this study of theater from its inception to today. The Secret Life of Theater begins with a look at theater’s origins in Ancient Greece. Next, it moves on to examine the history and nature of theater, from Agamenon to Angels in America, through theater’s use of stage directions, revealing the many unspoken languages that are employed to communicate with its audiences. Finally, it looks at theater’s ever-shifting strategies of engendering fellow-feeling through the use of emotion, allowing the form to become a rare space where one can feel a thought and think a feeling. In an age when many studies are concerned with the "how" of theater, this work returns us to theatre’s essential "why." The Secret Life of Theater suggests that by reframing the question we can re-enchant this unique and ever-vital medium of expression.

The Philosophical Stage

Author: Joshua Billings

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2024-06-04

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0691225079

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A bold new reconception of ancient Greek drama as a mode of philosophical thinking The Philosophical Stage offers an innovative approach to ancient Greek literature and thought that places drama at the heart of intellectual history. Drawing on evidence from tragedy and comedy, Joshua Billings shines new light on the development of early Greek philosophy, arguing that drama is our best source for understanding the intellectual culture of classical Athens. In this incisive book, Billings recasts classical Greek intellectual history as a conversation across discourses and demonstrates the significance of dramatic reflections on widely shared theoretical questions. He argues that neither "literature" nor "philosophy" was a defined category in the fifth century BCE, and develops a method of reading dramatic form as a structured investigation of issues at the heart of the emerging discipline of philosophy. A breathtaking work of intellectual history by one of today's most original classical scholars, The Philosophical Stage presents a novel approach to ancient drama and sets a path for a renewed understanding of early Greek thought.

Objects as Actors

Author: Melissa Mueller

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2016-01-13

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 022631300X

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Objects as Actors charts a new approach to Greek tragedy based on an obvious, yet often overlooked, fact: Greek tragedy was meant to be performed. As plays, the works were incomplete without physical items—theatrical props. In this book, Melissa Mueller ingeniously demonstrates the importance of objects in the staging and reception of Athenian tragedy. As Mueller shows, props such as weapons, textiles, and even letters were often fully integrated into a play’s action. They could provoke surprising plot turns, elicit bold viewer reactions, and provide some of tragedy’s most thrilling moments. Whether the sword of Sophocles’s Ajax, the tapestry in Aeschylus’s Agamemnon, or the tablet of Euripides’s Hippolytus, props demanded attention as a means of uniting—or disrupting—time, space, and genre. Insightful and original, Objects as Actors offers a fresh perspective on the central tragic texts—and encourages us to rethink ancient theater as a whole.

A Companion to Sophocles

Author: Kirk Ormand

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2015-06-02

Total Pages: 624

ISBN-13: 1119025532

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A Companion to Sophocles presents the first comprehensive collection of essays in decades to address all aspects of the life, works, and critical reception of Sophocles. First collection of its kind to provide introductory essays to the fragments of his lost plays and to the remaining fragments of one satyr-play, the Ichneutae, in addition to each of his extant tragedies Features new essays on Sophoclean drama that go well beyond the current state of scholarship on Sophocles Presents readings that historicize Sophocles in relation to the social, cultural, and intellectual world of fifth century Athens Seeks to place later interpretations and adaptations of Sophocles in their historical context Includes essays dedicated to issues of gender and sexuality; significant moments in the history of interpreting Sophocles; and reception of Sophocles by both ancient and modern playwrights

Greek Tragedy

Author: Edith Hall

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2010-01-21

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 0191572616

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This is an invaluable introduction to ancient Greek tragedy which discusses every surviving play in detail and provides all the background information necessary for understanding the context and content of the plays. Edith Hall argues that the essential feature of the genre is that it always depicts terrible human suffering and death, but in a way that invites philosophical enquiry into their causes and effects, This enquiry was played out in the bright sunlight of open-air theatre, which became a key marker of the boundary between living and dead. The first half of the book is divided into four chapters which address the social and physical contexts in which the plays were performed, the contribution of the poets, actors, funders, and audiences, the poetic composition of the texts, their performance conventions, main themes, and focus on religion, politics, and the family. The second half consists of individual essays on each of the surviving thirty-three plays by the Greek tragedians, and an account of the recent performance of Greek tragic theatre and tragic fragments. An up-to-date 'Suggestions for further reading' is included.