Introductory description

This module explores the unique nature and continuing significance of ancient Greek theatre. It offers an integrated study of Greek tragedy, comedy and satyr drama through close readings of the plays (in translation) and an exploration of how they would have worked in performance. As well as performance and theatricality, the module explores the political, social and literary dimensions of Greek plays, their economic, religious, social and political context, issues of translation, as well as their ancient and modern reception.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

TERM 1

Week 1 (L): Introduction to Greek theatre and its context; the dramatic festivals of Athens and their social, political and financial context; re-performances and their implications; theatrical and dramatic space; chorus and the actors; body and space in tragedy and comedy + (Q) Week 2 (L): Aeschylus’ Agamemnon; theatrical space and the characters; the house of the Atreids and its polysemous nature; imagery in performance; props; the ‘tapestry scene’ + (Q x 2) Followed by the screening of a modern production of Aeschylus’ Oresteia on campus Week 3 (W): Practical workshop based on the Oresteia, led by a theatre practitioner Week 4 (L): Aeschylus’ Agamemnon and the Oresteia: trilogies and their special nature; salient themes of the Oresteia and the different approaches to it over the years in scholarship and in performance + (Q x 2) Week 5 (L): Sophocles’ Electra; in the shadow of Aeschylus’ Choephori and Eumenides: space and characterisation; Aeschylean and Sophoclean Furies; the Sophoclean house of the Atreids. + (S): Close reading and literary interpretation of selected texts on the handling of the mythical cycle of the Atreids Week 6: Reading week Week 7 (L): Sophocles’ Trachiniae: myth, space and structuralism; space and time in Sophocles; barbarity and civilisation; Sophoclean theatre and the scholarship of J. P. Vernant and Charles Segal + (Q) Week 8 (L): Sophocles’ Women of Trachis and the performance of masculinities and femininities; Sophoclean endings and the ending of the Women of Trachis + (Q) Week 9 (L): Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Thesmophoriazousae: the female in Greek comedy; sex and gender on stage; feminist or patriarchal poetics; domestic and public space; the body and the polis; Aristophanes’ engagement with tragedy + (Q) Week 10 (S): Aristophanes’ fascination and rivalry with tragedy; performing the poetic persona in comedy [excerpts from different plays and fragments] TERM 2 Week 11 (L): [Aeschylus’] Prometheus’ Bound: the question of authenticity; the lost trilogy; the political context; Zeus and the divine element; play and staging; ancient and modern reception

• (Q x 2) Week 12 (L): Aristophanes’ Frogs: ‘poets’ on journeys and ‘poets’ on stage; comedy on tragedy and the role of drama in ancient literary criticism + (Q X) Followed by a screening of a Prometheus Bound on campus [In 2016-17, screening of the 2013 Cambridge Greek Play Prometheus Bound and Frogs, (dir. Helen Eastman)] Week 13 (W): Discussion and practical workshop with a theatre practitioner [In 2016-17, Discussion and workshop with Helen Eastman] Week 14 (L): Euripides’ Medea: the myth of Medea; killing children in Greek literature; Greek theatre and patriarchal ideology; gender and ideology; the ‘other’ in performance + (Q) Week 15 (L): Euripides’ Medea: space in Medea: scenic and extra-scenic spaces, esp. the house; ‘civilised’ and ‘uncivilised’ spaces and human psyche; gestures and proxemics + (Q) Week 16: Reading week Week 17 (L): Satyr play and the Dionysiac: Euripides’ Cyclops, and fragments from Aeschylus’ Net-Haulers and Sophocles’ Trackers + (Q) Week 18 (L): The Dionysiac and Greek tragedy: Euripides’ Bacchae; tragedy and Athenian religion; the mysteries in performance; Dionysus, theatre and gender + (Q) Week 19 (L): Euripides’ Bacchae and theatre space: the house and the mountain; female and male choruses; madness on stage in this and other plays; modern versions of the Bacchae + (S) on the different representations of the female in selected plays Week 20 (L): Lost dramas of Classical Athens: the missing 98% + (Q) TERM 3 Week 21 (L): The role of theatre performance in Greek culture; theatre in the Greek world in the fourth century and later + (Q) Week 22 (S): Seminar across playwrights
  Week 23 (L): Revision class + (Q x 2) Key: L = Lecture; S = Seminar; W = Workshop; Q = Close reading in the original with Q800 students; Q x 2 = 2 hrs of close reading in the original with Q800 students;

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• 1. Have a thorough knowledge of the spectrum of Greek theatre in its performative, social, political and cultural contexts
• 2. Have enhanced their research, writing and communication skills.
• 3. Have gained an understanding of the availability, uses and limits of primary source material, both literary and archaeological.
• 4. Have experience of working alone and as part of a team to achieve individual objectives, facilitating transition from university to an independent professional environment.
• 5. Be able to deploy electronic technologies in their learning.
• 6. Develop the ability to set their findings into a wider comparative context, drawing in other aspects of the study of the ancient world;
• 7. Engage creatively with a wider range of secondary literature that includes discussion of classical literature within broader comparative, including critical-theoretical, frames.

Indicative reading list

Csapo E., and Slater, W.J. (1995), The Context of Ancient Drama, Ann Arbor
Easterling. P.E. (ed.) (1997) The Cambridge companion to Greek tragedy, Cambridge
Green, R. and Handley E. (1995), Images of the Greek Theatre, London
Gregory, J. (2005) A companion to Greek tragedy, Malden MA.
Griffith, M. (2015) Greek satyr play : five studies, Berkeley
Hall, E. (2010) Greek Tragedy: Suffering under the Sun, Oxford.
Ley, G. (20062) A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater, Chicago.
Ley, G. (2007), The Theatricality of Greek Tragedy: Playing Space and Chorus, Chicago: University
of Chicago Press
Lowe, N. J. (2007) Comedy (Greece & Rome. New surveys in the classics; no. 37), Cambridge
McDonald, M. and Walton, J. M. (2007) The Cambridge companion to Greek and Roman theatre,
Cambridge
Padel, R. (1990), ‘Making space speak’, in J.J. Winkler and F.I. Zeitlin (eds.), Nothing to do with
Dionysus?, Princeton, 336-65
Padel, R. (1992), In and Out of the Mind: Images of the Tragic Self, Princeton.
Rehm, R. (2002) The play of space: spatial transformation in Greek tragedy, Princeton and Oxford.
Revermann, M. (2014) The Cambridge companion to Greek comedy, Cambridge
Silk, M. S. (2000) Aristophanes and the Definition of Comedy, Oxford
Sommerstein, A. H. (2002) Greek Drama and Dramatists, London 1-15, 25-32, 63-70
Storey, I. C. and Allan, A. (2005) A guide to ancient Greek drama, Oxford
Taplin, O. (1977), The Stagecraft of Aeschylus, Oxford
Taplin, O. (20022), Greek Tragedy in Action, London
Wiles, D. (1997), Tragedy in Athens: Performance Space and Theatrical Meaning, Cambridge

Subject specific skills

Principal Module Aims

1. For students to understand the special nature of Greek tragedy, comedy and satyr play as performative genres through selected readings, screenings, class discussions, and practical workshops.
2. For students to gain a thorough knowledge of the spectrum of theatre practice in the fifth century BC and its engagement with earlier and contemporaneous literary and cultural production.
3. For students to understand the links between aesthetic events with their political, social and cultural contexts.
4. For students to understand the continuing significance of Greek theatre in the modern world.
   Principal Learning Outcomes
   By the end of the module students should:
5. Have a thorough knowledge of the spectrum of Greek theatre in its performative, social, political and cultural contexts
6. Have enhanced their research, writing and communication skills.
7. Have gained an understanding of the availability, uses and limits of primary source material, both literary and archaeological.
8. Have experience of working alone and as part of a team to achieve individual objectives, facilitating transition from university to an independent professional environment.
9. Be able to deploy electronic technologies in their learning.
   Additionally, final-year students will :

• develop the ability to set their findings into a wider comparative context, drawing in other aspects of the study of the ancient world;
• engage creatively with a wider range of secondary literature that includes discussion of classical literature within broader comparative, including critical-theoretical, frames.

Transferable skills

• critical thinking
• problem solving
• active lifelong learning
• communication
• teamwork and working with others
• information literacy
• ICT literacy
• inter-cultural learning and diversity awareness
• professionalism