Sophocles Bedford
Characteristics of Sophocles' plays: emphasis on individual characters
The Greeks
Did you see it on TV -- "Modern Classics"? Well, I understnad the problems of "Classic Cola"... If you read the pages on postmiodernism, you know the difficulties we have after the end of history. What is "classics"? I reserved this name for every great script and writer before the Summer of 1968... Why 1968? Summer?
It is amazing how very few good plays exist -- you can finish them all in two semesters, if you are willing to read one play a day.
THR213 Dramlit, The Bedford DRAMA (2002): Aeschylus - Agamemnon? Sophocles -- Oedipus Rex (would love to cover Euripides - Medea). Fall 2002: Aristophanes "Lysistrata"! Next -- Marlowe (Doctor Faustus?) Moliere Questions: What is Protogonist? How do you understand the functions of Chorus? Fate concept. Explain it. Name three Greek playwrights... That was the test. If you can't answer the questions, you should take the class! Critical commentaries together with Oedipus: Poetics, Freud, Levi-Strauss (structuralism and myth; avegetation myth, Taplin ("tragedy is essentially the emotional experience of its audience"). Some Links:
Dramatic Irony & Guide The Shrew * Fall 2004 UAF * "The Greek vision focused on the immediacy of experience and on the nature of man: Man is free, but fated, fated but free. What qualities does he reveal? Through suffering, what does he learn, not about the gods, for they are simply “given”, but about himself? Oepidus the King is Sophocles’ farthest penetration into these mysteries." [ yale.edu ] SummaryOEDIPUS THE KING online * Theatre UAF 2005 Rex *"Fear? What should a man fear? It's all chance, chance rules our lives. Not a man on earth can see a day ahead, groping through the dark. Better to live at random, best we can. And as for this marriage with your mother—have no fear. Many a man before you, in his dreams, has shared his mother's bed. Take such things for shadows, nothing at all— Live, Oedipus, as if there's no tomorrow!" (Oedipus the King, 1068–1078) QuestionsGreek playwrights used the chorus primarily to:A. move scenery from the skene. B. comment on the action. C. welcome magistrates to the theatron. D. play musical instruments. Notes"People of Thebes, my countrymen, look on Oedipus. He solved the famous riddle with his brilliance, he rose to power, a man beyond all power. Who could behold his greatness without envy? Now what a black sea of terror has overwhelmed him. Now as we keep our watch and wait the final day, count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last." (Oedipus the King, 1678–1684)![]() Tragedy : case-study Describe the exposition revealed in the Prologue.
THE PRIEST OF ZEUS CREON CHORUS OF THEBAN ELDERS TEIRESIAS JOCASTA MESSENGER HERD OF LAIUS SECOND MESSENGER SCENE: THEBES. BEFORE THE PALACE OF OEDIPUS To do it in 2005 (Spring) -- Kabuki Style? See Rashomon Project. Sophocles (496?-406 b.c.). Born into a wealthy family at Colonus, a village just outside Athens, Sophocles distinguished himself early in life as a performer, musician, and athlete. Our knowledge of him is based on a very few ancient laudatory notices, but he certainly had a brilliant career as one of the three great Greek classical tragedians (the other two are Aeschylus, an older contemporary, and Euripides, a younger contemporary). He won the drama competition associated with the Dionysian festival (entries consisted of a tragic trilogy and a farce) at least twenty times (far more often than his two principal rivals). However, Oedipus Rex, his most famous tragedy, and the three other plays it was grouped with, took second place (ca. 429 b.c.). He lived during the golden age of Athens, when architecture, philosophy, and the arts flourished under Pericles. In 440 b.c., Sophocles was elected as one of the ten strategoi (military commanders), an indication of his stature in Athens. But his long life ended in sadder times, when the Peloponnesian War (431-404 b.c.), between the Athenian empire and an alliance led by Sparta, darkened the region. Though Sophocles wrote some 123 plays, only 7 have survived; nonetheless, these few works establish him as the greatest of the ancient Western tragedians. Fall 2005 -- Pygmalion? No. It is obvious that the great triumvirate of Greek tragedy--Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides--did not, like Minerva, spring full-armed from the head of Zeus, but were the end products of a long line of development. Several reputable scholars have pointed out that Egyptian culture was greatly admired by the Greeks, among other reasons for its religious development. Even Herodotus, Greek historian living in the fifth century B.C., held that the Greek Dionysus was but a slightly disguised Egyptian Osiris, whose suffering, death, and resurrection made him the symbol of the renewal of life and the yearly round of the seasons. It has been suggested that the acceptance of the Egyptian deity and his "naturalization" into Greek legend brought ceremonies to Greece which, for the first time, can truly be called dramatic. (Roberts 21)
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What is classics? You tell me! Shakespeare and Chekhov? Mustang 67? Fifties rock-n-roll? Never-mind, the Greeks.Everything "before me" is the classics. I hope the future will put me in this category too.From Aristotle to 20th century
I would refer you to Spengler ("Sunset of the West"), who believed that every era consists of two different stages -- culture and civilization. Like the Greeks and Romans in antiquity. The Greeks, of course, is the Classics, the Culture.
Sophocles and Shakespeare: What is Tragedy?
There will be a special page on genres one day. Or pages. Then I can "examine" the evolution of tragedy over 25 recorded centuries. You know that there is no less tragedy in the world today, but tragedy and comedy are not about the nature of events -- it's an issue of perception!
[ compare with the Epic Theory ]
Topics
Dramatic and Epic (The Poetics)Catharsis
Six Principles
Tragic Hero
PS. For the readers/students of Hamlet -- not in the textbook (read online).Writing Suggestions:215 People -- read "Oedipus"! Also, read "Antigone" -- if you want "A" (Commentaries on Sophocles pp.92-110 is a must. Also, Greek Drama p.31)
Attempt to chart the structure of Oedipus Rex, including rising action, conflict, climax, and falling action.
Locate the precise moment when Oedipus moves from a psychological state of denial to open recognition of the truth. Now describe the stage picture at this moment, including all characters on stage. How might you place or "block" the actors playing each role for maximum effect?
Discuss the motivations of the Chorus of Theban Elders as a voice of the polis.
Discuss the theme of blindness in Oedipus Rex. Describe the use of intellectual, physical, and metaphoric blindness throughout the play.
What will become "classical"?
History and Historicity (interpretation of history, according to each paticular period).
New and continuation: Structure & Texture. The beginning and evolution. Shakespeare is in the middle, between us and antiquity (good to keep the perspective).
Link to UK site, related to our studies
You are the dramaturg for a new production of Oedipus Rex. Using the Perseus Project at Tufts University (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/), find historical information. Focus your investigation on images of Oedipus.
General information on ancient Greek theater can be found at http://www.dscc.cc.tn.us/weeks/5th_century_greece_resources_page_11.htm. Using the photos and links here, write a brief essay on an element of Greek theater (production or text) that would assist your understanding of Oedipus Rex.
Perseus Project ***
A Treasury of the Theatre Vol. 1
Book by John Gassner; Simon and Schuster, 1951
[ quotes ]
** Oedipus online *
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