Dionysus since 69: Greek Tragedy at the Dawn of the Third Millennium

by Edith Hall, Fiona Macintosh, Amanda Wrigley

Overview

Greek tragedy is currently being performed more frequently than at any time since classical antiquity. This book is the first to address the fundamental question, why has there been so much Greek tragedy in the theatres, opera houses and cinemas of the last three decades? A detailed chronological appendix of production information and lavish illustrations supplement the fourteen essays by an interdisciplinary team of specialists from the worlds of classics, theatre studies, and the professional theatre. They relate the recent appeal of Greek tragedy to social trends, political developments, aesthetic and performative developments, and the intellectual currents of the last three decades, especially multiculturalism, post-colonialism, feminism, post-structuralism, revisions of psychoanalytical models, and secularization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199281312
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/10/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	500
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 5.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Edith Hall is Leverhulme Professor of Greek Cultural History at the University of Durham and Co-Director of the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, University of Oxford. Fiona Macintosh is Senior Research Fellow at the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, University of Oxford. Amanda Wrigley is Researcher at the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, University of Oxford.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Why Greek tragedy since the late 1960s?, Edith Hall1. Dionysus and the Sex War2. Dionysus in '69, Froma Zeitlin3. Bad women: gender politics in late twentieth-century performance and revision of Greek tragedy, Helene Foley4. Heracles as Dr Strangelove and GI Joe: male heroism deconstructed, Kathleen Riley2. Dionysus in Politics5. Sophocles' iPhiloctetes/i, Seamus Heaney's, and some other recent half-rhymes, Oliver Taplin6. Aeschylus, race, class, and war in the 1990s, Edith Hall7. Greek tragedy in cinema: theatre, politics, history, Pantelis Michelakis8. Greek drama and anti-colonialism: decolonising Classics, Lorna Hardwick3. Dionysus and the Aesthetics of Performance9. The use of masks in modern performances of Greek tragedy, David Wiles10. Greek notes in Samuel Beckett's theatre art, Katharine Worth11. Greek Tragedy in late twentieth-century opera, Peter Brown4. Dionysus and the Life of the Mind12. Oedipus in the East End: from Freus to Berkoff, Fiona Macintosh13. Thinking about the origins of theatre in the 1970s, Erika Fischer-Lichte14. The voices we hear, Timberlake Wertenbaker15. Details of productions discussed, Amanda Wrigley

Editorial Reviews

"This tetrapartite volume contains fourteen thought-provoking essays by leading scholars on various intersections between ancient Greek tragedy and modern film, stage plays, and operas since 1969."—Text & Presentation, 2005

From the Publisher