ATHENIAN DRAMA: GENRE, PERFORMANCE, POLI

This course examines the three dramatic genres of fifth-century BCE Athens – tragedy, comedy, and satyr play – alongside one another. Even though these genres were often performed on the same stage and sometimes at the same festival, modern scholars have tended to treat them separately. Each week we will instead allow these distinct forms of drama to intersect by close reading substantial selections from a tragedy, a comedy, and a satyr play under a particular theme or topic. This will allow us to explore the insights and resonances that emerge at the intersection between these genres, as we consider commonalities and differences between dramatic genres, as well as how Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Cratinus, Eupolis, Euripides, Sophocles and others handled dramatic structures, myth, politics, religion, and staging. Our aim is to gain insight into the intricacies of ancient Greek theater and the boundaries that modern scholars have drawn between these sibling genres. Because most satyr play – as well as the comedies of Cratinus and Eupolis – survives in fragments we will additionally explore the challenges and opportunities of working with fragmentary drama. While our focus will be on the primary texts, the assigned secondary reading will also introduce students to a range of key areas of focus such as the city, the chorus, and gods as well as to various recent approaches related to theories of embodiment, materiality, and cognition. This broad-ranging approach is designed not only to familiarize students with the theoretical landscape of Greek drama of the last twenty-five years but also to encourage advanced exploration of ancient Greek theater through a range of critical approaches and methodologies.