Download Democracy, Drama, and Performance Culture in Ancient Athens

Democracy, Drama, and Performance Culture in Ancient Athens
Wednesday, 26th October 2016
Athina Papachrysostomou
Assistant Professor of Ancient Greek Literature (Dept. of Philology)
The session is meant as a multifaceted coverage of the vibrant performance
arena that the city of Athens was during especially (though not exclusively)
the fifth century BC. The peak of the democratic regime coincides (not by
accident) with the peak of dramatic production, within an unprecedentedly
engaging socio-political milieu. But how did all this come into being and what
were the quintessential elements and defining attributes of this unique
phenomenon?
This session aspires to answer these questions, at least in part.
Sample bibliography:
1. L. J. Samons II, Pericles and the Conquest of History: A Political Biography,
Cambridge 2016 (Cambridge University Press).
2. L. J. Samons II (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles,
Cambridge 2007 (Cambridge University Press).
3. S. Goldhill & R. Osborne, Performance Culture and Athenian Democracy,
Cambridge & New York 1999.
4. R. K. Sinclair, Democracy and Participation in Athens, Cambridge 1988
(Cambridge University Press).
5. Ch. G. Starr, The Birth of Athenian Democracy: The Assembly in the Fifth
Century BC, Oxford 1991 (Oxford University Press).
6. R. Osborne, Athens and Athenian Democracy, New York 2010.
7. R. Osborne, "When was the Athenian democratic revolution?", in S.
Goldhill & R. Osborne (eds.), Rethinking Revolutions through Ancient
Greece, Cambridge 2006, 10-28.
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8. J. Ober, Political Dissent in Democratic Athens. Intellectual Critics of
Popular Rule, Princeton 1998.
9. R. Brock, Greek Political Imagery from Homer to Aristotle, New York 2003.
10. S. S. Monoson, Plato's Democratic Entanglements: Athenian Politics and the
Practice of Philosophy, Princeton 2000.
11. L. Pernot, Epideictic Rhetoric: Questioning the Stakes of Ancient Praise,
Austin 2015.
12. I. Worthington (ed.), Persuasion: Greek Rhetoric in Action, London &
New York 1994.
13. C. L. Johnstone (ed.), Theory, Text, Context: Issues in Greek Rhetoric and
Oratory, Albany 1996.
14. J. Fredal, Rhetorical Action in ancient Athens: Persuasive Artistry from
Solon to Demosthenes, Carbondale 2006.
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