Euripides and the Poetics of Nostalgia

Euripides and the Poetics of Nostalgia
Author: Gary S. Meltzer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2006-10-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1139458590

Branded by critics from Aristophanes to Nietzsche as sophistic, iconoclastic, and sensationalistic, Euripides has long been held responsible for the demise of Greek tragedy. Despite this reputation, his drama has a fundamentally conservative character. It conveys nostalgia for an idealized age that still respected the gods and traditional codes of conduct. Using deconstructionist and feminist theory, this book investigates the theme of the lost voice of truth and justice in four Euripidean tragedies. The plays' unstable mix of longing for a transcendent voice of truth and skeptical analysis not only epitomizes the discursive practice of Euripides' era but also speaks to our postmodern condition. The book sheds light on the source of the playwright's tragic power and enduring appeal, revealing the surprising relevance of his works for our own day.

Euripides and the Boundaries of the Human

Euripides and the Boundaries of the Human
Author: Mark Ringer
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2016-07-29
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1498518443

Euripides and the Boundaries of the Human presents the first single-volume reading in nearly fifty years of all of Euripides’ surviving plays. Rather than examining one or a handful of dramas in monograph or article form, Mark Ringer insists on the thematic and stylistic parallels that unite a diverse canon of works. Euripides is often referred to as the most modern of the three Ancient Greek tragedians, but in what way can the work of this fifth-century B.C. artist be claimed as modern? The multi-layered presentation of character is new within the context of Athenian Tragedy. The plays also reveal equal concern with the preservation and re-vitalization of tradition, especially with respect to the portrayal of the Olympian gods. Euripidean drama upholds tradition just as vigorously as it posits a new kind of realism in character portrayal in the Ancient Theatre. Euripidean drama fuses what was old with what was new in order to revitalize and perpetuate the art of tragedy. This book will be of interest to professionals and students in the fields of classics, Greek drama in translation or in the original Greek, theater studies, comparative literature, tragedy, and religion.

Nostalgia and Political Theory

Nostalgia and Political Theory
Author: Lawrence Quill
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2024-01-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1003833276

In Nostalgia and Political Theory, Lawrence Quill advocates the central importance of nostalgia as a theoretical response to the ‘historic’ past and a vertiginous present. He does so by offering detailed analyses of diverse theoretical approaches, from the ancient world to the modern day, in order to reassess the relation between nostalgia and politics. Quill proposes nostalgia as an organizing concept, silently (and not so silently) influencing theorists as they construct critiques of the present or visions of the political future. Nostalgia and Political Theory surveys key contributions to nostalgic and antinostalgic thinking from across the political spectrum. Assessing the influence of photography, radio, television, and personal computing on changing conceptions of the past, Quill also considers the relation between populism, nationalism, and nostalgia. By challenging those who would dismiss nostalgia as irrational or a symptom of cultural malaise, Quill concludes by advancing the case for a liberal theory of nostalgia. Nostalgia and Political Theory will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of political theory, social theory, sociology, philosophy, political science, memory studies, and nostalgia studies.

The Play of Texts and Fragments

The Play of Texts and Fragments
Author: J.C.R. Cousland
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 564
Release: 2009-06-24
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9047428196

This volume is arguably one of the most important studies of Euripides to appear in the last decade. Not only does it offer incisive examinations of many of Euripides' extant plays and their influence, it also includes seminal examinations of a number of Euripides’ fragmentary plays. This approach represents a novel and exciting development in Euripidean studies, since it is only very recently that the fragmentary plays have begun to appear in reliable and readily accessible editions. The book’s thirty-two contributors constitute an international "who’s who" of Euripidean studies and Athenian drama, and their contributions will certainly feature in the forefront of scholarly discourse on Euripides and Greek drama for years to come.

Seeing with Free Eyes

Seeing with Free Eyes
Author: Marlene K. Sokolon
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2021-08-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1438484720

Responding to Plato's challenge to defend the political thought of poetic sources, Marlene K. Sokolon explores Euripides's understanding of justice in nine of his surviving tragedies. Drawing on Greek mythological stories, Euripides examines several competing ideas of justice, from the ancient ethic of helping friends and harming enemies to justice as merit and relativist views of might makes right. Reflecting Dionysus, the paradoxical god of Greek theater, Euripides reveals the human experience of understanding justice to be limited, multifaceted, and contradictory. His approach underscores the value of understanding justice not only as a rational idea or theory, but also as an integral part of the continuous and unfinished dialogue of political community. As the first book devoted to Euripidean justice, Seeing with Free Eyes adds to the growing interest in how citizens in democracies use storytelling genres to think about important political questions, such as "What is justice?"

Euripides: Hecuba

Euripides: Hecuba
Author: Luigi Battezzato
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2018-01-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 110854780X

Hecuba was the most widely read play of Euripides from antiquity to the Renaissance, appealing to readers and spectators for its controversial treatment of moral themes: revenge, war and slavery, violence, human sacrifice, gender and ethnic relations. It narrates the death of Hecuba's daughter Polyxena, sacrificed by the Greeks to placate the ghost of Achilles, and that of her son Polydorus, killed out of greed by the Thracian king who was supposed to protect him. Hecuba successfully plots a cruel and shocking revenge against the killer. The play is now at the centre of the attention of scholars and performing artists. This edition offers new textual and interpretive suggestions, and provides detailed guidance on problems of language as well as employing conceptual tools from contemporary linguistics. It will be useful for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, as well as of interest to scholars.

A Companion to Euripides

A Companion to Euripides
Author: Laura K. McClure
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 769
Release: 2016-12-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1119257522

A COMPANION TO EURIPIDES A COMPANION TO EURIPIDES Euripides has enjoyed a resurgence of interest as a result of many recent important publications, attesting to the poet’s enduring relevance to the modern world. A Companion to Euripides is the product of this contemporary work, with many essays drawing on the latest texts, commentaries, and scholarship on the man and his oeuvre. Divided into seven sections, the companion begins with a general discussion of Euripidean drama. The following sections contain essays on Euripidean biography and the manuscript tradition, and individual essays on each play, organized in chronological order. Chapters offer summaries of important scholarship and methodologies, synopses of individual plays and the myths from which they borrow their plots, and conclude with suggestions for additional reading. The final two sections deal with topics central to Euripidean scholarship, such as religion, myth, and gender, and the reception of Euripides from the 4th century BCE to the modern world. A Companion to Euripides brings together a variety of leading Euripides scholars from a wide range of perspectives. As a result, specific issues and themes emerge across the chapters as central to our understanding of the poet and his meaning for our time. Contributions are original and provocative interpretations of Euripides’ plays, which forge important paths of inquiry for future scholarship.

A Study Guide for Euripides's "Hippolytus"

A Study Guide for Euripides's
Author: Gale, Cengage Learning
Publisher: Gale, Cengage Learning
Total Pages: 29
Release: 2016
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1410348083

A Study Guide for Euripides's "Hippolytus," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.

Euripides: 'Helen'

Euripides: 'Helen'
Author: Euripides
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 19
Release: 2008-02-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521836905

Detailed commentary, suitable for students, on one of the most skilful and original Greek tragedies.

Three Other Theban Plays

Three Other Theban Plays
Author: Aeschylus
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2016-02-11
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1624664733

Though now associated mainly with Sophocles' Theban Plays and Euripides' Bacchae, the theme of Thebes and its royalty was a favorite of ancient Greek poets, one explored in a now lost epic cycle, as well as several other surviving tragedies. With a rich Introduction that sets three of these plays within the larger contexts of Theban legend and of Greek tragedy in performance, Cecelia Eaton Luschnig’s annotated translation of Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes, Euripides' Suppliants, and Euripides' Phoenician Women offers a brilliant constellation of less familiar Theban plays—those dealing with the war between Oedipus’ sons, its casualties, and survivors.