Telediscussion: “Is Greek Tragedy Dead or Alive Today? The Paradigm of Medea.”

Telediscussion: “Is Greek Tragedy Dead or Alive Today? The Paradigm of Medea.”

George Steiner in M.S. Silk (ed) Tragedy and the Tragic: Greek Theatre and Beyond, Oxford: Clarendon Press 1996, p. 543 argued that

It has long been manifest that tragedy, closely defined, evolves from a context of felt, or challenged, religious beliefs. The mythological matter of the tragic draws on the dynamics of the supernatural. Even a negative theology can in exceptional hands yield a tragic world view e.g. the absent presence of Golgotha in Endgame. But it is difficult to imagine a renascence of high tragic theatre in a positivist climate of consciousness, in a mass market society, more and more of whose thinking members regard the question of the existence of God, let alone demonic agents intervening in mundane affairs, as archaic nonsense. The mythologies which now inform our perceptions of the self and of reality are therapeutic.

Nevertheless, Edith Hall in Dionysus since 69 attests to the popularity of tragedy in different languages, nations, cultures and media since 1960s. She thus asks the question of what relevance is Greek tragedy in the late 20^th century. Does Greek tragedy matter today and why?

Given your readings on Euripides’ Medea, what do you think about the modern classical reception of Euripides’ tragedy in modern cinema (Pasolini, Lars von Trier, Dassen)?

Jocasta Classical Reception Greece is pleased to announce its participation in the 2^nd Ohio-Patras Transatlantic Conversation in collaboration with the Laboratory of Myth and Religion, which will take place at the Laboratory of Myth and Religion, Departmental Library Building at the Department of Philology, University of Patras, Greece on Tuesday October 20^th 2015 at 15.00 Eastern European Time.

Suggested Bibliography

Hall, E., “Introduction: Why Greek Tragedy in the Late Twentieth Century?” in E. Hall, F. Macintosh and A. Wrigley (eds.) Dionysus since ’69: Greek Tragedy at the Dawn of the Third Millenium, Oxford University Press 2004, p.  1-46.

Steiner, G. “Tragedy, pure and Simple” in M.S. Silk (ed) Tragedy and the Tragic: Greek Theatre and Beyond, Oxford: Clarendon Press 1996, pp. 534-546.

http://jocasta.upatras.gr/

The films

 NIKE