Author: D. G. Beer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313039321
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 211
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Book Description
The Athenian democracy of the 5th century B.C. created the most important political theatre of western culture. Sophocles, the most successful tragic playwright of the age, was a radical innovator who produced his tragedies to present to his audience complex moral, social, and political issues of a kind that they might be faced with in their various legal and political assemblies. Beer examines Sophocles as a political playwright against the background of Athenian democracy, breaking new ground by showing the importance of the mask for understanding Sophoclean tragedy and redefining the notion of skenographia, or setting the scene. He concludes that Sophocles revolutionized the concept of dramatic space. The Athenian tragic theatre was deeply political and played an important and active role in the life of Athenian democracy. This book presents an introduction to the political nature of Greek tragedy and Sophoclean tragedy in an effort to shed new light on the dramatic works of the 5th century playwright. As Aristotle noted, Sophocles' two most important innovations were the introduction of the third actor and skenographia, which brought tragedy to its fully evolved form. Beer argues that although his use of the third actor has been widely understood, his use of skenographia has not. Carefully exploring the true sense of this method of using dramatic space, Beer brings a new understanding to the works of this old master.
Author: David M. Carter
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 9781904675167
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 209
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Book Description
Part of the 'Greece and Rome Live' series, which aims to introduce figures and aspects of the ancient world to the general reader, this is a guide to the political aspect of Greek tragedy using close examination of specific plays. A handy combined index/glossary and a bibliography are included.
Author: Vayos Liapis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107155703
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 447
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Book Description
Shows how contemporary adaptations, on the stage and on the page, can breathe new life into Greek tragedy.
Author: David Wiles
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521648578
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 260
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Book Description
Specially written for students and enthusiasts, David Wiles introduces ancient Greek theatre and cultural life.
Author: Mark Chou
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1441190481
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 206
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Book Description
This engaging work tells the story of democracy through the perspective of tragic drama. It shows how the ancient tales of greatness and its loss point to the potential dangers of democracy then and now. Greek Tragedy dramatized a variety of stories, characters, and voices drawn from reality, especially from those marginalized by Athens's democracy. It brought up dissident figures through its multivocal form, disrupting the perception of an ordered reality. Today, this helps us grasp the reality of Athenian democracy, that is, a system steeped in patriarchy, slavery, warmongering, and xenophobia. The book reads through two renditions of Aeschylus' Suppliants as democratic texts for the twenty-first century, to show how such multivocal dramas actually address not only the pitfalls of our contemporary democracy, but also a range of environmental, security, socio-economic, and political dilemmas that afflict democratic politics today. Written in a very accessible manner, Greek Tragedy and Contemporary Democracy is a lively book that will appeal to any political science and international relations student interested in issues of democracy, governance, democratic peace, and democratic theory.
Author: Mark Chou (Political scientist)
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781501301469
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
"This title tells the story of democracy through the perspective of tragic drama. It shows how the ancient tales of greatness and its loss point to the potential dangers of democracy then and now."--Bloomsbury Publishing.
Author: Peter J. Ahrensdorf
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139475584
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 193
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Book Description
In this book, Peter Ahrensdorf examines Sophocles' powerful analysis of a central question of political philosophy and a perennial question of political life: should citizens and leaders govern political society by the light of unaided human reason or religious faith? Through an examination of Sophocles' timeless masterpieces - Oedipus the Tyrant, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone - Ahrensdorf offers a sustained challenge to the prevailing view, championed by Nietzsche in his attack on Socratic rationalism, that Sophocles is an opponent of rationalism. Ahrensdorf argues that Sophocles is a genuinely philosophical thinker and a rationalist, albeit one who advocates a cautious political rationalism. Ahrensdorf concludes with an incisive analysis of Nietzsche, Socrates and Aristotle on tragedy and philosophy. He argues, against Nietzsche, that the rationalism of Socrates and Aristotle incorporates a profound awareness of the tragic dimension of human existence and therefore resembles in fundamental ways the somber and humane rationalism of Sophocles.
Author: Simon Stow
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107158060
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247
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Book Description
This insightful study employs public mourning as a lens to identify and address the shortcomings of American democracy.
Author: Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470693266
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 232
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Book Description
Greek Tragedy sets ancient tragedy into its original theatrical, political and ritual context and applies modern critical approaches to understanding why tragedy continues to interest modern audiences. An engaging introduction to Greek tragedy, its history, and its reception in the contemporary world with suggested readings for further study Examines tragedy’s relationship to democracy, religion, and myth Explores contemporary approaches to scholarship, including structuralist, psychoanalytic, and feminist theory Provides a thorough examination of contemporary performance practices Includes detailed readings of selected plays
Author: Anthony J. Podlecki
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Greece
Languages : en
Pages : 208
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Book Description
"The seven extant plays of Aeschylus were not written in a vacuum, but rather against the background of a momentous period in Greek history, by a dramatist profoundly concerned with the political and military events of his time. This book examines each play against that background. In so doing it casts a searching light on both the period and the dramatist" -- Book jacket.
