The Mask In Ancient Greek Tragedy

A 2007 study of the mask in Greek tragedy, covering both ancient and modern performances.

"What matters about a play is not the extent to which it is like any other play, but the way in which it is different," writes Thomas G. Rosenmeyer. "This is, I suggest, how the ancient audiences received the performances.... My purpose, then, in writing these essays is twofold: ... to devote enough space to the discussion of each play to allow its special tone and texture to emerge without hindrance and at leisure ... and to include in one collection analyses of plays so different from one another that the accent will come to rest on the variety of the tragic experience rather than on any one narrowly defined norm." Greek tragedy is a vehicle for many different ideas and many different intentions. From the wealth of material that has come down to us the author has chosen six plays for analysis. He reminds us that the plays were written to be seen and heard, and only secondarily to be studied. The listeners expected each play to have a specific objective, and to exhibit its own mood. These the author attempts to recover for us, by listening to what each play, in its own right, has to say. His principal concern is with the tragic diction and the tragic ideas, designed to release certain massive responses in the large theater-going group of ancient Athens. In exploring the characters and the situations of the plays he has chosen, the author transports his reader to the world of fifth-century B.C. Greece, and establishes the relevance of that world to our own experience. The essays are not introductory in nature. No space is given, for instance, to basic information about the playwrights, the history of Greek drama, or the special features of the Attic stage. Yet the book addresses itself to classicists and nonclassicists alike. The outgrowth of a series of lectures to nonspecialists, its particular appeal is to students of literature and the history of Western thought. Parallels are drawn between the writings of the philosophers and the tragedies, and attention is paid to certain popular Greek beliefs that colored the tragic formulations. Ultimately, however, the approach is not historical but critical; it is the author's intention to demonstrate the beauty and the craftsmanship of the plays under discussion.

Along with democracy, tragedy is recognized as a genuine invention of the Athenians (fifth century BC). Indeed, what is now referred to often as the golden age of Ancient Greece is based on the development at the level of both the art and politics: tragic drama and the democratic form of government. The two cultural institutions then are rightly considered to be central elements of the Greek heritage . This collection seeks to complement and stimulate the broad interest in tragedy demonstrated in university curricula around the world. Both the ancient Greek plays and their successors such as Shakespeare in the Renaissance, or playwrights such as Brecht and Beckett in the twentieth century, have extended the range and complexity of the category of tragedy. What is being mapped in this collection of critical essays is the variety of ways in which teachers, students, and theatre practitioners now think, talk, produce and enact tragedies. Contributors to this anthology seek to achieve two broad aims. The first is to increase respect for the complexity of the texts themselves (albeit working mainly through the medium of translation) as well as a detailed understanding of their original context; the second is to adopt the position of contemporary readers who bring a range of contemporary theoretical approaches to bear in their search for meaning in these classical works. They include theatre theory and practice, feminism and gender sensitivity, new understandings of the very concepts of text and narrative and the impact on extra literary fields of knowledge such as psychoanalysis - all contribute to our reading of the genre of tragedy today. These in particular reflect some of the most exciting work on tragedy of the last fifty years. This collection is a collaborative Australian-Indian one. The location in different cultures of both the editors and contributors has enabled the range of essays represented in this Reader. What the collection foregrounds

An explanation of Greek theater as seen through its many depictions in classical art

Greek drama is fascinating and the real beginning of modern drama as we know it today. This well researched and concise book is a must for anybody studying the history of drama. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

This generous selection of published essays by the distinguished classicist Charles Segal represents over twenty years of critical inquiry into the questions of what Greek tragedy is and what it means for modern-day readers. Taken together, the essays reflect profound changes in the study of Greek tragedy in the United States during this period-in particular, the increasing emphasis on myth, psychoanalytic interpretation, structuralism, and semiotics.

Because mask improvisation work is relatively new in American theater training, this book is designed not only to acquaint readers with the theory of mask improvisation but to instruct them in the techniques of method as well. Featuring dozens of improvisational exercises in the innovative spirit of Viola Spolin, and supplemented with practical appendices on mask design and construction, forms and checklists, and other classroom materials, this book is an invaluable tool for teacher and student alike, as well as compelling reading for anyone interested in acquiring a deeper understanding of masks as agents of transformation, creativity, and performance.