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Performing violence in fourth-century BCE Athens : court, curse, and comedy / by Werner Riess.
LIBRA PA3203 .R54 2011
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Riess, Werner.
- Series:
- MythosEikonPoiesis
- MythosEikonPoiesis, 1868-5080
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Theater--Greece--History--To 500.
- Theater.
- Violence.
- History.
- Greece.
- Violence in the theater.
- Violence--Greece--Athens--History.
- Greece--Athens.
- Physical Description:
- viii, 479 pages ; 18 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- New York : De Gruyter, 2011.
- Summary:
- Riess (classics, U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) defines violence narrowly for the purposes of this study, excluding the political realm, myth and tragedy, violence against animals (e.g. religious sacrifice), and sports and war. That leaves interpersonal violence, which this study explores by examining various kinds of theatrical and ritual frameworks. These frameworks--the source material for "violence discourse" (the author's words)--include court records, speeches, plays, and "curse tablets," which the author describes as "judicial spells cast on adversaries before trials." He discusses how these ritualized performances served both to communicate and validate violent impulses and at the same time served "...to restrain the most serious forms of violence without creating what we would consider a pacified society." Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Hazel M. Hussong Fund.
- ISBN:
- 3110245590
- 9783110245592
- 9783110245608
- 3110245604
- OCLC:
- 708243751
- Publisher Number:
- 99947642345
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