Tragic failures : Alexandrian responses to tragedy and the tragic / Evina Sistakou.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sistakou, Evina, author.

Series:

Trends in classics. Supplementary volumes ; Volume 37.

Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes, 1868-4785 ; Volume 38

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Greek poetry, Hellenistic--History and criticism.

Greek poetry, Hellenistic.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (262 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin, [Germany] ; Boston, Massachusetts : De Gruyter, 2016.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This is the first study considering the reception of Greek tragedy and the transformation of the tragic idea in Hellenistic poetry. The focus is on third-century Alexandria, where the Ptolemies fostered tragedy as a theatrical form for public entertainment and as an official genre cultivated by the Pleiad, whereas the scholars of the Museum were commissioned to edit and comment on the classical tragic texts. More importantly, the notion of the tragic was adapted to the literary trends of the era. Released from the strict rules established by Aristotle about what makes a good tragedy, the major poets of the Alexandrian avant-garde struggled to transform the tragic idea and integrate it into non-dramatic genres. Tragic Failures traces the incorporation of the tragic idea in the poetry of Callimachus and Theocritus, in Apollonius’ epic Argonautica, in the iambic Alexandra, in late Hellenistic poetry and in Parthenius’ Erotika Pathemata. It offers a fascinating insight into the new conception of the tragic dilemmas in the context of Alexandrian aesthetics.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Introduction: From Tragedy to the Tragic

1. Tragedy, from Athens to Alexandria

2. The Metaclassical Tragic

3. Alexandrian Tragedy

4. Callimachus Displaces the Tragic

5. Redefining the Tragic in the Idylls of Theocritus

6. Tragedy into Epic in Apollonius’ Argonautica

7. In the Metatragic Cosmos of the Alexandra

8. The Romantic Tragic

Conclusion: Tragic Failures and Hellenistic Challenges

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resouce; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed July 27, 2016).

ISBN:

9783110480634

3110480638

9783110482324

3110482320

OCLC:

954046804