This book provides a brief and accessible introduction to Greek tragedy for students and general readers alike. Whether readers are studying Greek culture, performing a Greek tragedy, or simply interested in reading a Greek play, this book will help them to understand and enjoy this challenging and rewarding genre. An Introduction to Greek Tragedy provides background information; helps readers appreciate, enjoy, and engage with the plays themselves; and gives them an idea of the important questions in current scholarship on tragedy. Ruth Scodel seeks to dispel misleading assumptions about tragedy, stressing how open the plays are to different interpretations and reactions. In addition to general background, the book also includes chapters on specific plays, both the most familiar titles and some lesser-known plays – Persians, Helen, and Orestes – in order to convey the variety that the tragedies offer readers.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Advance Quotes: “Scodel’s book is an accessible and lively account of a complex dramatic form with enduring interest for modern audiences. In addition to providing reliable background information, she draws her readers into fascinating debates about the origins, staging, and interpretation of tragedy and brings to life both familiar and lesser-known characters in her lucid analyses of individual plays.” – Laura McClure, University of Wisconsin–Madison
“An engaging overview that is informative and accessible without being bland or reductive. Scodel dispenses with unhelpful truisms to present tragedy as a diverse and much-debated art form with multiple meanings and functions.” – Sheila Murnaghan, University of Pennsylvania
“…[a] sensible recent guide….” The New York Review of Books
“This is a valuable addition to introductions to tragedy that have recently appeared… this is a consistently good and often inspired introduction, well written…” —New England Classical Journal
Book Description
An accessible introduction for students and anyone interested in increasing their enjoyment of Greek tragic plays.
About the Author
Ruth Scodel is currently D. R. Shackleton Bailey Collegiate Professor of Greek and Latin in the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan. Her most recent books are Epic Facework: Self-Presentation and Social Interaction in Homer (2008) and Whither Quo Vadis? Sienkiewicz’s Novel in Film and Television (2008). She is also the author of numerous articles on Greek literature.
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