Tragic rites : narrative and ritual in Sophoclean drama / Adriana Brook.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brook, Adriana E., author.

Series:

Wisconsin studies in classics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sophocles--Criticism and interpretation.

Sophocles.

Greek drama (Tragedy)--History and criticism.

Greek drama (Tragedy).

Criticism and interpretation.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xi, 237 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wisconsin : The University of Wisconsin Press, [2018]

Summary:

Presenting an innovative new reading of Sophocles' plays, Tragic Rites analyzes the poetic and narrative function of ritual in the seven extant plays of Sophocles. Adriana Brook closely examines four of them-Ajax, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus-in the context of her wide-ranging consideration of the entire Sophoclean corpus. Exploring the playwright's dramatic technique, she shows how he used elements of ritual to guide the perceptions and expectations of his fifth-century audience about plot and character. Employing both modern ritual theory and Aristotle's Poetics, Brook exposes the deep structural analogies between ritual and narrative, the parallels between mistakes in ritual and deviations from the expected in the plot, and the relationship between ritual content and dramatic closure. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: Ritual poetics in the plays of Sophocles

Normative rituals and ritual mistakes in the Antigone, Trachiniae, and Oedipus Tyrannus

Ritual conflation in the Ajax

Ritual repetition in the Electra

Ritual status in the Philoctetes

Supplication in the Oedipus at Colonus

Conclusion: Ritual and closure.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-230) and index.

ISBN:

9780299313807

0299313808

OCLC:

982448389