Female acts in Greek tragedy / Helene P. Foley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Foley, Helene P.

Series:

Martin classical lectures.

Martin classical lectures

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Greek drama (Tragedy)--History and criticism.

Greek drama (Tragedy).

Women and literature--Greece.

Women and literature.

Women in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (423 p.)

Edition:

Core Textbook

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ ; Woodstock : Princeton University Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Although Classical Athenian ideology did not permit women to exercise legal, economic, and social autonomy, the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides often represent them as influential social and moral forces in their own right. Scholars have struggled to explain this seeming contradiction. Helene Foley shows how Greek tragedy uses gender relations to explore specific issues in the development of the social, political, and intellectual life in the polis. She investigates three central and problematic areas in which tragic heroines act independently of men: death ritual and lamentation, marriage, and the making of significant ethical choices. Her anthropological approach, together with her literary analysis, allows for an unusually rich context in which to understand gender relations in ancient Greece. This book examines, for example, the tragic response to legislation regulating family life that may have begun as early as the sixth century. It also draws upon contemporary studies of virtue ethics and upon feminist reconsiderations of the Western ethical tradition. Foley maintains that by viewing public issues through the lens of the family, tragedy asks whether public and private morality can operate on the same terms. Moreover, the plays use women to represent significant moral alternatives. Tragedy thus exploits, reinforces, and questions cultural clichés about women and gender in a fashion that resonates with contemporary Athenian social and political issues.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introductory Note and Abbreviations

Introduction

I. The Politics of Tragic Lamentation

II. The Contradictions of Tragic Marriage

III. Women as Moral Agents in Greek Tragedy

IV. Anodos Dramas: Euripides' Alcestis and Helen

Conclusion

Bibliography

General Index

Index Locorum

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [339]-368) and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9786612935268

9786612087479

9781400814251

1400814251

9781282087477

1282087479

9781282935266

1282935267

9781400824731

1400824737

OCLC:

609842108