Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Reaching Athens: Community, Democracy and Other Mythologies in Adaptations of Greek Tragedy

Laera, Margherita (2013) Reaching Athens: Community, Democracy and Other Mythologies in Adaptations of Greek Tragedy. New Comparative Criticism . Peter Lang, 333 pp. ISBN 978-3-0343-0807-6. (KAR id:30844)

PDF (First part of the Introduction) Publisher pdf
Language: English
Download this file
(PDF/224kB)
[thumbnail of First part of the Introduction]
Preview
Request a format suitable for use with assistive technology e.g. a screenreader

Abstract

Why do revivals and adaptations of Greek tragedy still abound in twenty-first-century European national theatres, fringe stages and international festivals? Taking as its starting point Jean-Luc Nancy’s and Roland Barthes’ concepts of myth and Salvatore Settis’ notion of the ‘classical’, this book investigates discourses around community, democracy, origin and Western identity in stage adaptations of Greek tragedy on contemporary European stages. It addresses the ways in which the theatre produces and perpetuates the myth of ‘classical’ Greece as the origin of Europe and how this narrative raises issues concerning the possibility of a transnational European community. Each chapter explores a pivotal problem in modern appropriations of Greek tragedy, including the performance of the chorus, the concept of ‘obscene’ and the audience as the demos of democracy. Among others, contemporary versions of Women of Troy, Hippolytus and Persians performed in Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland and Greece are analysed through a series of comparative case studies. By engaging with the work of prominent contemporary theatre-makers such as Mark Ravenhill, Michel Vinaver, Katie Mitchell, Sarah Kane, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Romeo Castellucci, Calixto Bieito and Rimini Protokoll, this volume offers a critique of contemporary democratic Europe and the way it represents itself onstage.

Item Type: Book
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The theatre
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Arts
Depositing User: Margherita Laera
Date Deposited: 21 Sep 2012 11:09 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:08 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/30844 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.