Ancient Theater: Tragety

CLA 9-364-2001

Daily Schedule

May 7 Introduction

May 8 The Nature and Context of Athenian Tragedy (pm only)

• Selections from Aristotle's Poetics (in reader)
• "The Great Dionysia" Csapo & Slater (in reader)
• "Theater of the Polis" Longo (in reader)
• "The Great Dionysia and Civic Ideology" Goldhill (in reader)
  

May 9 Aeschylus Agamemnon

• Response Paper Due
• Agamemnon (in GRTR vol. 1)
• "'I, Whom She Detested so Bitterly': Slavery and the Violent Division of Women in Aeschylus' Oresteia" McCoskey (in reader)
• Background on Aeschylus
• Background and Images for the Oresteia
  
• video: selections from Peter Hall
  

• Oral reports on producers/directors/poets and theatrical space
• Eumenides (in GRTR vol. 3)
• "The Dynamics of Misogyny: Myth and Mythmaking in the Oresteia" F. Zeitlin (in reader)

• Response Paper Due
• Antigone(in GRTR vol. 1.)
• Background on Antigone
  
  
• Choose one of the following (on reserve):
• "Assumptions and the Creation of Meaning: Reading Sophocles' Antigone" Sourvinou-Inwood
• "Tragedy and Democratic Ideology: The Case of Sophocles' Antigone" H. Foley in History, Tragedy, Theory
• "Antigone as Moral Agent" H. Foley in Tragedy and the Tragic
• "Tragedy and the Fragility of Moral Reasoning: Response to Foley" Michael Trapp in Tragedy and the Tragic

• Response Paper Due
• Hippolytus (in GRTR vol. 1)
• "Women in Athens" (reader)
• Background on Euripides
• click here for background to the Hippolytus myth and here for background and images.
  
  
• Choose one of the following (on reserve):
• "At the House Door: Phaedra and the Politics of Reputation," McClure in Spoken Like a Woman
• "Female Speech and Female Sexuality: Euripides' Hippolytos as Model" Rabinowitz
  

May 17 Euripides Hecuba

• Hecuba (in reader)
• "Slaves With Slaves: Women and Class in Euripidean Tragedy." Rabinowitz. (in reader)
• video: Trojan Women
  
  
• Choose one of the following (on reserve):
• "Concepts of Demoralization in the Hecuba." Reckford in Directions in Euripidean Criticism
• "Violence and the Other: Greek, Female, and Barbarian in Euripides' Hecuba." Segal
• "Euripides and Aechylus: The Case of the Hekabe." Thalmann

• Medea (in Reader)
• Women on the Edge, Intro (in Reader)
• Background and Images for the Medea
• video: Robinson Jeffers/Robert Whitehead Medea
  
  
• Choose one of the following:
• "Medea's Right Hand: Promises and Revenge." Flory
• "Medea's Divided Self." Foley
• "Medea at a Shifting Distance: Images and Euripidean Tragedy." Sorvinou-Inwood

• Response Paper Due
  Bacchae (in GRTR vol. 3)
• Background and Images for the Bacchae
  
  
• Choose one of the following (on reserve):
• "Catharsis, Audience, and Closure in Greek Tragedy" Segal in Tragedy and the Tragic
• "Weeping, Witnessing, and the Tragic Audience: Response to Segal" Easterling in Tragedy and the Tragic
• "Pentheus and the Spectator in Euripides' Bacchae" Barrett

• Thesmophoriazusae (in CPA)
• Henderson's Introduction to Aristophanic comedy and the Thesmophoriazusae (in reader)
• Background on Aristophanes
  
  
• Choose one of the following (on reserve):
• "Obscenity, Gender, and Social Status in Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae and Ecclesiazusae" McClure in Spoken Like a Woman
• "Older Women in Attic Old Comedy" Henderson
• "Men as Women: Thesmophoriazusae" Taafe

• Response Paper Due
• Frogs (in CPA)
  
  
• Choose one of the following (on reserve):
• "The Heraclean Dionysus: Theatrical and Social Renewal in Aristophanes' Frogs" Padilla
  
• "The Demos and the Comic Competition" Henderson in Nothing to Do With Dionysos?

• oral reports on the context of Roman theater
• Thyestes (in FTO)
• Boyle's Introduction to the Roman Theatre (in reader)
  
  
• Choose one of the following:
• Fantham's Intro to Senecan Tragedy
• "Dark Wit and Black Humor in Seneca's Thyestes"

Thurs pm Dinner and Horror fest at Cindy's
video: Halloween

• Troades (in FTO)
• Selections from Seneca's Philosophical Works
  
  
• Choose one of the following (on reserve):
• "Her Body Himself" Clover
• "Split Vision: The Politics of the Gaze in Seneca's Troades" Benton

• Response Paper Due
  Medea (in FTO)
  
  
• Choose one of the following (on reserve):
• "Serpents in the Soul: A Reading of Seneca's Medea." Nussbaum
• "Film Theory and the Gendered Voice in Seneca." Robin in Feminist Theory and the Classics

• Titus Andronicus
  
• video: Titus

• Essay Due