Women on the Edge

Four Plays by Euripides
Erscheinungsjahr 1999
ISBN: 978-0-415-90773-6
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd (Sales)

Buch, Englisch, 512 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 1110 g

Reihe: The New Classical Canon

Women on the Edge, a collection of Alcestis, Medea, Helen, and Iphegenia at Aulis, provides a broad sample of Euripides' plays focusing on women, and spans the chronology of his surviving works, from the earliest, to his last, incomplete, and posthumously produced masterpiece. Each play shows women in various roles--slave, unmarried girl, devoted wife, alienated wife, mother, daughter--providing a range of evidence about the kinds of meaning and effects the category woman conveyed in ancient Athens. The female protagonists in these plays test the boundaries--literal and conceptual--of their lives.

Although women are often represented in tragedy as powerful and free in their thoughts, speech and actions, real Athenian women were apparently expected to live unseen and silent, under control of fathers and husbands, with little political or economic power. Women in tragedy often disrupt "normal" life by their words and actions: they speak out boldly, tell lies, cause public unrest, violate custom, defy orders, even kill. Female characters in tragedy take actions, and raise issues central to the plays in which they appear, sometimes in strong opposition to male characters. The four plays in this collection offer examples of women who support the status quo and women who oppose and disrupt it; sometimes these are the same characters.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Blondell, Ruby

Gamel, Mary-Kay

Rabinowitz, Nancy Sorkin

Vivante, Bella

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

INTRODUCTIONI. Athens and Greek Culture Political History, Religion, Fate and Responsibility, Self and Other II.Athenian Tragedy: A Civic Institution Tragedy and Athenian Democracy, Audience, The Festival, Production and Performance, The Chorus, Formal Elements, Use of MythIII.Women in AthensAthenian Women and the Ideology of Gender, Women and Marriage: From Parthenos to Gune, Women and Athenian TragedyIV.EuripidesLife and Works, Ancient Reactions to Euripides, Euripides as a Playwright, Women in EuripidesV.The Afterlife of EuripidesSurvival and Canonization, Textual Criticism, The Artistic LegacyFOUR PLAYS BY EURIPIDESAlcestis: Translated by Nancy Sorkin RabinowitzMedea: Translated by Ruby BlondellHelen: Translated by Bella ZweigIphigenia at Aulis: Translated by Mary-Kay GamelNotesReferences

Über Autor(innen)

Ruby Blondell is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Washington. Mary-Kay Gamel is Associate Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Santa-Cruz. Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz is Professor of Comparative Literature at Hamilton College. Bella Vivante is Senior Lecturer in Humanities at the University of Arizona.