Tragic agency in classical drama from Aeschylus to Voltaire / by Paul Hammond.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hammond, Paul, 1953- author.

Series:

Faux titre, 0167-9392 ; volume 451.

Faux titre, 0167-9392 ; volume 451

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Greek drama (Tragedy)--History and criticism.

Greek drama (Tragedy).

French drama--17th century--Classical influences.

French drama.

Agent (Philosophy) in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Brill, 2021.

Summary:

Are we free agents? This perennial question is addressed by tragedy when it dramatizes the struggle of individuals with supernatural forces, or maps the inner conflict of a mind divided against itself. The first part of this book follows the adaptations of four myths as they migrate from classical Greek tragedy to Seneca and on to seventeenth-century France: the stories of Agamemnon, Oedipus, Medea, and Phaedra. Detailed linguistic analysis charts the playwrights' contrasting assumptions about agency and autonomy. In the second part, six plays by Corneille and Racine are discussed to show how the problem of agency and free will is explored in scenarios which show protagonists who are in thrall to their past, to their rulers, or to their own ideals.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Preface

Glossary of Principal Greek Terms

Abbreviations

Part 1 Modes of Tragic Agency

Chapter 1 Preliminary

Chapter 2 Greek Tragedy

Chapter 3 Senecan Tragedy

Chapter 4 French Tragedy

Part 2 Metamorphoses of Tragic Myth

Chapter 5 Agamemnon

1 Aeschylus

2 Seneca

3 Boyer

Chapter 6 Oedipus

1 Sophocles

3 Corneille

4 Voltaire

5 Folard

6 La Motte

Chapter 7 Medea

1 Euripides

3 Corneill

Chapter 8 Phaedra

3 Racine

Part 3 Models of Freedom and Bondage

Chapter 9 Preliminary Neo-classical Agency and Its Constraints

Chapter 10 Corneille: Cinna Discerning Liberty and Tyranny

Chapter 11 Corneille: Sertorius Nominalism and Liberty in the Empire of Words

Chapter 12 Corneille: Tite et Bérénice Tragic Freedom

Chapter 13 Racine: Andromaque The Bondage of Time

Chapter 14 Racine: Britannicus Forms of Liberty and Servitude

Chapter 15 Racine: Bérénice The Rhetoric of Space and Self

Afterword

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9789004467378

9004467378

OCLC:

1281990946

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004467378 DOI