Platonic Drama and Its Ancient Reception

1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-521-87174-7
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 354 Seiten, Format (B × H): 141 mm x 221 mm, Gewicht: 587 g

Reihe: Cambridge Classical Studies

As prose dramatic texts Plato's dialogues would have been read by their original audience as an alternative type of theatrical composition. The 'paradox' of the dialogue form is explained by his appropriation of the discourse of theatre, the dominant public mode of communication of his time. The oral performance of his works is suggested both by the pragmatics of the publication of literary texts in the classical period and by his original role as a Sokratic dialogue-writer and the creator of a fourth dramatic genre. Support comes from a number of pieces of evidence, from a statue of Sokrates in the Academy (fourth century BC) to a mosaic of Sokrates in Mytilene (fourth century AD), which point to a centuries-old tradition of treating the dialogues in the context of performance literature and testify to the significance of the image of 'Plato the prose dramatist' for his original and subsequent audiences.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Charalabopoulos, Nikos G.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Rezeption, literarische Einflüsse und Beziehungen
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Klassische Literaturwissenschaft Klassische Griechische & Byzantinische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Setting the stage
2. The metatheatre of dialogue
3. Performing Plato
4. Plato's theatre: the fragments
Finale
Appendix: an Academy inscription.

Über Autor(innen)

Charalabopoulos, Nikos G.
Nikos Charalabopoulos is Lecturer in the Department of Philology at the University of Patras.