Greek literature. Volume 9, Greek literature in the Byzantine period
First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
In: War and Peace in the Ancient World, S. 191-205
In: Publications of the University of Manchester
In: classical series 6
In: Studies in Classical Literature and Culture
The book is an analysis of Greek Hellenistic literature with the help of conceptual tools of cultural studies and media theory. Its main aim is to describe the cultural process during which Greek authors in the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. made the "textualization of experience", that is, transferred phenomenalistically understood qualities of human sensory experience to the categories characteristic for textual description – as far as possible for them. This process is shown by examples from the works of Xenophon, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Philitas of Kos and Archimedes. The author also tries to show some of the consequences that the phenomenon of the Hellenistic textualization of experience had for the later epochs of European culture.
In: South European society & politics, Band 11, Heft 1, S. 47-60
ISSN: 1743-9612
In: Why Plato Wrote, S. 158-160
In: The European legacy: the official journal of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI), Band 18, Heft 4, S. 502-506
ISSN: 1470-1316
The chorus of Euripides' Bacchae heralds the arrival of the god Dionysus by promising that "right away, the whole world will dance in a chorus" (αὐτίκα γᾶ πᾶσα χορεύσει, 114). Their exuberant claim reflects the enthusiasm for dance generally expressed in early Greek sources. Indeed, it has been well established that dance – specifically choreia (communal song-dance) – played a significant role in archaic and classical Greek social life and was thus accorded a high level of value and esteem in art and literature. My dissertation argues that this esteemed status does not extend to the performance of solo and individualized dance, and demonstrates that Greek literary discourse betrays a deep ambivalence towards dance (orchēsis) when isolated from the multimedia art of choreia.This project thus approaches Greek dance, which has hitherto been studied almost exclusively in the context of the chorus, from a fresh angle. I establish that singular dancing often signifies disruption, violation, and vulnerability within the social and political order. At the same time, I show that the representation of individualized dance constitutes a distinctive mechanism adopted by poets, playwrights, historians and philosophers to foreground and explore the complex relationship between verbal and somatic expression. As a result, the representation of individualized dance in Greek literature offers insight into the place of dance in Greek thought, while also enabling us to identify the particular biases and agendas at work in the literary description of dance performance.My dissertation develops a distinctive methodology for analyzing the relationship between dance and literature. I begin from a basic conviction, grounded in the scholarship of dance studies, that verbal descriptions and literary representations of dance are not neutral reflections of embodied practices, but rather ideological and interpretive forms that work to frame and define our perception of dance. I argue that choreia, as a synthesis of vocal, instrumental, and kinetic expression, becomes an efficient image for poets, philosophers, and historians seeking to harness dance to the power of language. My work thus demonstrates that orchēsis, as individual kinetic expression and kinesthetic experience, not only signifies social and political disruption, but is also imagined as an expressive mode that may resist or re-figure the forces of language and verbal description.My first chapter argues that individual dancers provide a critically engaged alternative to the prevailing model of communal, choral performance, which tends to be logocentric. This chapter lays out a dominant paradigm of choral dance as constructed in early Greek literature, offers a typology of solo and individualized dance forms, and previews the insights to be gained through the consideration of dance "beyond choreia." Chapter Two addresses the descriptions of both choral and individualized dance in Odyssey 8, demonstrating that singular and virtuosic dance is particularly emblematic of Phaeacian culture and that its description operates as a means by which Odysseus and Alcinous competitively negotiate their relative positions of status and authority within the poem. Chapters Three and Four examine individual male and female dancers respectively in epic, lyric, and drama, identifying a complex network of political and artistic concerns that coalesce around literary representations of each type of performer. I argue that solo male dancers tend to be depicted as disruptive and anti-social political actors (e.g., Pericles in Ion of Chios fr. 109 Leurini, Philocleon in Arist. Wasps 1474ff), while individual and outstanding female dancers are marked by their sexual appeal and consequent vulnerability (e.g., the maiden chorēgoi of Alcman 1 PMG, Cassandra in Eur. Troades 308ff). These chapters also focus on the performance contexts of specific songs and their ability to frame and define closely related instances of dance. My fifth and final chapter explores how Herodotus, Plato, and Xenophon deploy the various models of individual dance discussed in the preceding chapters in the service of their own historical and philosophical projects. While my primary focus throughout is on literary description, I also discuss the visual and material evidence for solo dance, particularly in cases where it contrasts with the textual tradition.The project as a whole makes two major contributions to the study of Greek literature, culture, and performance. First, it brings together the surviving representations of solo and individualized dance and considers them as evidence for the cultural discourse surrounding both orchēsis and choreia. Second, it develops a theoretical framework for articulating the complex relationship between literary descriptions and historical performance, bringing the scholarly insights of dance studies to bear upon the ancient world.
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In: Shofar: a quarterly interdisciplinary journal of Jewish studies ; official journal of the Midwest and Western Jewish Studies Associations, Band 30, Heft 3, S. 154-157
ISSN: 1534-5165
AbstractThe Birth of the Mob: Representations of Crowds in Archaic and Classical Greek LiteraturebyJustin Jon SchwabDoctor of Philosophy in ClassicsUniversity of California, BerkeleyProfessor Leslie Kurke, Chair This dissertation surveys the representation of crowds and related phenomena in Homer, the Attic tragedians, and Aristophanes. The first chapter begins by noting that while recent scholarship has explored the role of the crowd in ancient Roman history and literature, virtually no similar work has been done in archaic and classical Greek studies. Admittedly, Greek poleis were on a much smaller scale than was Rome, and it may be for this reason that classical scholars have assumed "the" crowd is not a feature of ancient Greek society. In order to explain why this absence of study is due to a limited understanding of what crowds are, I survey the development of crowd theory and mass psychology in the modern era. I adopt the model of Elias Canetti's Crowds and Power, which studies crowds as part of a spectrum of group behavior, ranging from small "packs" to imagined crowds at the level of a nation. Under this expanded model, I argue that crowds are universal human phenomena whose representations in archaic and classical Greek literature are fruitful objects of study. The chapter ends with a brief survey of "crowd words" to be examined, including homilos, ochlos, homados and thorubos. The second chapter studies crowds in Homer through a close reading of several words and passages. The two crucial words for this study are homilos and homados, which refer respectively to a crowd and the distinctive noise it makes. I survey the homilos in the Iliad as a background of anonymous figures against which elite figures display their excellence, before arguing that the suitors in the Odyssey are the closest Homer comes to representing a crowd. Individually elite, they nonetheless are reduced to the status of a mob by the fact of their aggregation. The third chapter examines the crowd in tragedy. I argue that the crowd looms as an offstage threat to the elite characters depicted onstage, most obviously in such plays as Sophocles's Ajax and Euripides's Andromache and Orestes, but to some extent in almost every surviving tragedy. In this chapter, the word ochlos (not yet present in Homer) is the key crowd-term, although homilos and other words are also present. The works of Euripides are particularly rife with descriptions of crowds, and my survey illuminates just how central the topic was to his work, in a reflection of the troubled politics of his era. The fourth chapter examines the discourse on the crowd in Aristophanes. I demonstrate that the comedian's work is highly concerned with crowds and other groupings of people. Athens during the Peloponnesian war was crowded, not only due to the siege but in mentality and dramatic representation. To many of Aristophanes's characters, the improper aggregation of bodies is just one symptom of the general disintegration of society and decline of traditional morality. Where in tragedy the crowd must remain offstage, comedy can also bring crowds onto the stage, in such scenes as the opening of the Acharnians. I close with a Postscript presenting two quotes of Plato, from the Republic and the Laws, whose descriptions of crowd behavior and its effect on individuals take on new significance in light of the deep history of the representation of crowds which this dissertation explores.
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In: Princeton paperbacks