Tragic Agency in Classical Drama from Aeschylus to Voltaire


Book Description

Are we free agents? This perennial question is addressed by tragedy when it dramatizes the struggle of individuals with supernatural forces, or maps the inner conflict of a mind divided against itself. The first part of this book follows the adaptations of four myths as they migrate from classical Greek tragedy to Seneca and on to seventeenth-century France: the stories of Agamemnon, Oedipus, Medea, and Phaedra. Detailed linguistic analysis charts the playwrights’ contrasting assumptions about agency and autonomy. In the second part, six plays by Corneille and Racine are discussed to show how the problem of agency and free will is explored in scenarios which show protagonists who are in thrall to their past, to their rulers, or to their own ideals.




Tragic Agency in Classical Drama from Aeschylus to Voltaire


Book Description

"Are we free agents? This perennial question is addressed by tragedy when it dramatizes the struggle of individuals with supernatural forces, or maps the inner conflict of a mind divided against itself. The first part of this book follows the adaptations of four myths as they migrate from classical Greek tragedy to Seneca and on to seventeenth century France: the stories of Agamemnon, Oedipus, Medea, and Phaedra. Detailed linguistic analysis charts the playwrights' contrasting assumptions about agency and autonomy. In the second part, six plays by Corneille and Racine are discussed to show how the problem of agency and free will is explored in scenarios which show protagonists who are in thrall to their past, to their rulers, or to their own ideals"--




Racine’s Tragedies of Tyranny


Book Description

In Bajazet and Mithridate Racine depicts the tragedies of characters who either wield tyrannic power or are subjected to tyranny. This international collection of essays deploys cutting-edge research to illuminate the plays and their contexts. The contributors to this volume examine Racine’s stagecraft, his exploration of space, sound and silence, his language, and the psychology of those who exercise power or who attempt to maintain their freedom in the face of oppression. The reception and reworking of his plays by contemporaries and subsequent generations round off this wide-ranging study.




Racine’s Roman Tragedies


Book Description

In two of his most celebrated plays, Britannicus and Bérénice, Racine depicts the tragedies of characters trapped by the ideals, desires, and cruelties of ancient Rome. This international collection of essays deploys cutting-edge research to illuminate the plays and their contexts.




MYTH, SYMBOL, AND RITUAL: ELUCIDATORY PATHS TO THE FANTASTIC UNREALITY


Book Description

The fourth volume of the “Mythology and Folklore” series, the outcome of the debates held within the international conference on Mythology and Folklore organized with the support of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Bucharest, adhere to the tripartite structure of the previous volumes: I. Myth, Mythocritique. Archetypes. Symbols; II. Mythological Reverberations. Reinterpretation of Myth: Revitalization, Demythization, Remythization. Socializing Myths; III. Folklore. Folkloric Archetypes. Folkloric Reverberations. To conclude, the 4th volume of the “Mythology and Folklore” series dwells on studies and debates regarding notions such as theatricality, socio-cultural and religious context, foregrounding various ways in which some archaic myths and rites have survived and withstood the test of time. Likewise, notions such as alterity, power, hierophany or superstition identified in myths and ancient beliefs speak of the process of development, horizontally, of inter-human relations, and, vertically, of a parallel process of awareness of the transcendental relationship between man and divinity.The fourth volume of the “Mythology and Folklore” series, the outcome of the debates held within the international conference on Mythology and Folklore organized with the support of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Bucharest, adhere to the tripartite structure of the previous volumes: I. Myth, Mythocritique. Archetypes. Symbols; II. Mythological Reverberations. Reinterpretation of Myth: Revitalization, Demythization, Remythization. Socializing Myths; III. Folklore. Folkloric Archetypes. Folkloric Reverberations. To conclude, the 4th volume of the “Mythology and Folklore” series dwells on studies and debates regarding notions such as theatricality, socio-cultural and religious context, foregrounding various ways in which some archaic myths and rites have survived and withstood the test of time. Likewise, notions such as alterity, power, hierophany or superstition identified in myths and ancient beliefs speak of the process of development, horizontally, of inter-human relations, and, vertically, of a parallel process of awareness of the transcendental relationship between man and divinity.




Racine's Roman Tragedies: Essays on Britannicus and Bérénice


Book Description

In two of his most celebrated plays, Britannicus and Bérénice, Racine depicts the tragedies of characters trapped by the ideals, desires, and cruelties of ancient Rome. This international collection of essays deploys cutting-edge research to illuminate the plays and their contexts.




The Oxford Handbook of Greek Drama in the Americas


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of Greek Drama in the Americas is the first edited collection to discuss the performance of Greek drama across the continents and archipelagos of the Americas from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present. The study and interpretation of the classics have never been restricted by geographical or linguistic boundaries but, in the case of the Americas, long colonial histories have often imposed such boundaries arbitrarily. This volume tracks networks across continents and oceans and uncovers the ways in which the shared histories and practices in the performance arts in the Americas have routinely defied national boundaries. With contributions from classicists, Latin American specialists, theatre and performance theorists, and historians, the Handbook also includes interviews with key writers, including Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, Charles Mee, and Anne Carson, and leading theatre directors such as Peter Sellars, Carey Perloff, H?ctor Daniel-Levy, and Heron Coelho. This richly illustrated volume seeks to define the complex contours of the reception of Greek drama in the Americas, and to articulate how these different engagements - at local, national, or trans-continental levels, as well as across borders - have been distinct both from each other, and from those of Europe and Asia.




The Theatrical Cast of Athens


Book Description

An examination of ancient Greek drama, and its relationship to the society in which it was produced. By focusing on the ways in which the plays treat gender, ethnicity, and class, and on their theatrical conventions, Edith Hall offers an extended study of the Greek theatrical masterpieces within their original social context.




Gale Contextual Encyclopedia of World Literature


Book Description

Covers world authors from many periods and genres, building an understanding of the various contexts -- from the biographical to the literary to the historical -- in which literature can be viewed. Identifies the significant literary devices and global themes that define a writer's style and place the author in a larger literary tradition as chronicled and evaluated by critics over time.




Brill's Companion to the Reception of Euripides


Book Description

Brill's Companion to the Reception of Euripides provides a comprehensive account of the influence and appropriation of all extant Euripidean plays since their inception: from antiquity to modernity, across cultures and civilizations, from multiple perspectives and within a broad range of human experience and cultural trends, namely literature, intellectual history, visual arts, music, opera and dance, stage and cinematography. A concerted work by an international team of specialists in the field, the volume is addressed to a wide and multidisciplinary readership of classical reception studies, from experts to non-experts. Contributors engage in a vividly and lively interactive dialogue with the Ancient and the Modern which, while illuminating aspects of ancient drama and highlighting their ever-lasting relevance, offers a thoughtful and layered guide of the human condition.