The Tragedy of Political Theory The Road Not Taken / J. Peter Euben.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Euben, J. Peter.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tragedie grecque--Histoire et critique.

Tragedie grecque.

Theâtre politique grec--Histoire et critique.

Theâtre politique grec.

Teatro político griego--Historia y crítica.

Teatro político griego.

Política y literatura--Grecia.

Política y literatura.

Politique et litterature--Grece.

Politique et litterature.

Idees politiques--Grece--Histoire.

Idees politiques.

Greece--Politique et gouvernement.

Greece.

Greece--Política y gobierno.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 314 pages)

Edition:

2. printing, with corr.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton Univ. Press, 1994.

Summary:

In this book J. Peter Euben argues that Greek tragedy was the context for classical political theory and that such theory read in terms of tragedy provides a ground for contemporary theorizing alert to the concerns of post-modernism, such as normalization, the dominance of humanism, and the status of theory. Euben shows how ancient Greek theater offered a place and occasion for reflection on the democratic culture it helped constitute, in part by confronting the audience with the otherwise unacknowledged principles of social exclusion that sustained its community. Euben makes his argument through a series of comparisons between three dramas (Aeschylus' Oresteia, Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannos, and Euripides' Bacchae) and three works of classical political theory (Thucydides' History and Plato's Apology of Socrates and Republic) on the issues of justice, identity, and corruption. He brings his discussion to a contemporary American setting in a concluding chapter on Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 in which the road from Argos to Athens, built to differentiate a human domain from the undefined outside, has become a Los Angeles freeway desecrating the land and its people in a predatory urban sprawl.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Preface

PART I - INTRODUCTION

PART II - GREEK TRAGEDY AND POLITICAL THEORY

PART III - POLITICAL THEORY AND TRAGEDY

PART IV - CONCLUSION

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691023144

069102314X

OCLC:

1273306730