The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens
The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens

Author: Sir Arthur Wallace Pickard-Cambridge

Publisher: Hassell Street Press

Published: 2021-09-09

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 9781014277930

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Dionysus Writes
Dionysus Writes

Author: Jennifer Wise

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2019-05-15

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1501744941

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What is the nature of theatre's uneasy alliance with literature? Should theatre be viewed as a preliterate, ritualistic phenomenon that can only be compromised by writing? Or should theatre be grouped with other literary arts as essentially'textual,'with even physical performance subsumed under the aegis of textuality? Jennifer Wise, a theatre historian and drama theorist who is also an actor, director, and designer, responds with a challenging and convincing reconstruction of the historical context from which Western theatre first emerged. Wise believes that a comparison of the performance style of oral epic with that of drama as it emerged in sixth-century Greece shows the extent to which theatre was influenced by literate activities relatively new to the ancient world. These activities, foreign to Homer yet familiar to Aeschylus and his contemporaries, included the use of the alphabet, the teaching of texts in schools, the public inscription of laws, the sending and receiving of letters, the exchange of city coinage, and the making of lists. Having changed the way cultural material was processed and transmitted, the technology of writing also led to innovations in the way stories were told, and Wise contends that theatre was the result. However, the art of drama appeared in ancient Greece not only as a beneficiary of literacy but also in defiance of any tendency to see textuality as an end in itself.

Black Dionysus
Black Dionysus

Author: Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr.

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2010-03-22

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780786451593

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Many playwrights, authors, poets and historians have used images, metaphors and references to and from Greek tragedy, myth and epic to describe the African experience in the New World. The complex relationship between ancient Greek tragedy and modern African American theatre is primarily rooted in America, where the connection between ancient Greece and ancient Africa is explored and debated the most. The different ways in which Greek tragedy has been used by playwrights, directors and others to represent and define African American history and identity are explored in this work. Two models are offered for an Afro-Greek connection: Black Orpheus, in which the Greek connection is metaphorical, expressing the African in terms of the European; and Black Athena, in which ancient Greek culture is "reclaimed" as part of an Afrocentric tradition. African American adaptations of Greek tragedy on the continuum of these two models are then discussed, and plays by Peter Sellars, Adrienne Kennedy, Lee Breuer, Rita Dove, Jim Magnuson, Ernest Ferlita, Steve Carter, Silas Jones, Rhodessa Jones and Derek Walcott are analyzed. The concepts of colorblind and nontraditional casting and how such practices can shape the reception and meaning of Greek tragedy in modern American productions are also covered.

Plague and the Athenian Imagination
Plague and the Athenian Imagination

Author: Robin Mitchell-Boyask

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2007-12-13

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1139468235

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The great plague of Athens that began in 430 BCE had an enormous effect on the imagination of its literary artists and on the social imagination of the city as a whole. In this book, Professor Mitchell-Boyask studies the impact of the plague on Athenian tragedy early in the 420s and argues for a significant relationship between drama and the development of the cult of the healing god Asclepius in the next decade, during a period of war and increasing civic strife. The Athenian decision to locate their temple for Asclepius adjacent to the Theater of Dionysus arose from deeper associations between drama, healing and the polis that were engaged actively by the crisis of the plague. The book also considers the representation of the plague in Thucydides' History as well as the metaphors generated by that representation which recur later in the same work.

Dionysus in Exile:
Dionysus in Exile:

Author: Harald Müller

Publisher: Verlag Theater der Zeit

Published: 2019-03-29

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 395749222X

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On September 23 and 24, 2011, a group of scholars and practitioners from different fields and parts of the world assembled at the Greek Cultural Foundation in Berlin to discuss aspects of Terzopoulos'theatre related to its Dionysian qualities. Scholars of theatre studies, classical studies, psychoanalysis, psycho- and neurolinguistics met with writers, dramaturges, directors, and actors to share their views on the particularity of Terzopoulos' theatre. The symposium was held in his honor. With contributions from: Etel Adnan | Konstantinos I. Arvanitakis | Penelope Chatzidimitriou | Alexander Chepurov | Freddy Decreus | Matthias Dreyer | Erika Fischer-Lichte | Gonia Jarema | Kerem Karaboga | Frank M. Raddatz | Georgios Sampatakakis | Savvas Stroumpos | Dimitris Tsatsoulis | David Wiles

Nothing to Do with Dionysos?
Nothing to Do with Dionysos?

Author: John J. Winkler

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-07-21

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 0691215898

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These critically diverse and innovative essays are aimed at restoring the social context of ancient Greek drama. Theatrical productions, which included music and dancing, were civic events in honor of the god Dionysos and were attended by a politically stratified community, whose delegates handled all details from the seating arrangements to the qualifications of choral competitors. The growing complexity of these performances may have provoked the Athenian saying "nothing to do with Dionysos" implying that theater had lost its exclusive focus on its patron. This collection considers how individual plays and groups of dramas pertained to the concerns of the body politic and how these issues were presented in the convention of the stage and as centerpieces of civic ceremonies. The contributors, in addition to the editors, include Simon Goldhill, Jeffrey Henderson, David Konstan, Franois Lissarrague, Oddone Longo, Nicole Loraux, Josiah Ober, Ruth Padel, James Redfield, Niall W. Slater, Barry Strauss, and Jesper Svenbro.