The core of this lower division lecture course on Greek tragedy is the reading of some 13 dramas by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, the three great Athenian tragedians of the fifth century B.C.,  plus several modern dramatic and/or literary interpretations of their classical tradition.

         Drama is a medium that imitates action. To make the widest case for the value and significance of the tragic drama, we will begin with the assumption that life itself is an action, an event that doesn't just happen but must be done. I.e., since life is an action, it must like all intelligent action be undertaken with careful and sensible deliberation and choice.  This is a position held by Aristotle. Aristotle goes on to state that happiness too is an action, and does, as such, constitute the best form of life. Yet, in his Poetics, his work on tragedy, he says that tragedy is an art whose staged "imitations of actions and hence of life" optimally show the reversal of happiness and action into their opposites: suffering, incapacity and helplessness.  This goes well with the Sophoclean dictum that happiness is a mere seeming.

   Beginning with some observations on the limited possibilities of action and happiness, we will move on to questions about the nature of tragedy and our response to it. What are the feelings and sensations elicited by tragedy? What is the entertainment value of an art that presents terrible things convincingly? How are we to consider tragedyís strange intermingling of pleasure and displeasure? What is the point of dramas that present such visions of life? Do we learn anything from tragedy? Does the tragic imitation of life teach us anything about life and happiness? Is Aeschylus correct in his assertion that we learn through suffering?  If so, what and how are we instructed by the art of the tragic drama? Are other tragedians so optimistic?  Is the tragic vision restricted to the lives and values of ancient Greeks or is it also alive today in contemporary outlooks and presented meaningfully on the modern stage? How is the tragic vision invoked by the discourses of popular culture including, preeminently, the six oíclock news? We will investigate these and other questions of enduring human interest throughout the semester.

 Lectures will touch upon the origin and development of Greek drama, the physical aspects of the theater, social and political context of Greek tragedy and the responses to Greek tragedy in Plato, Aristotle,  modern play writes and theorists. But the primary focus of this course will be upon the literary interpretation of these works.

 Course requirements: two five page papers (20 & 30%  each, the higher percentage being applied to the paper with the higher grade), One in class mid term exam ( 20%) and one final exam  (30 %). Papers submitted after the deadlines without prior authorization of the instructor will lose some credit.

 A note on translations. I strongly advise using the assigned translations. This will make in class reference to the text easier for everybody. Also, on the exams there will be passages quoted from the assigned translations for recognition and comment. Thus the use of other translations may create unnecessary difficulties  during the exams.

Greek dramas.

 Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound, Seven against Thebes, The Oresteia.
 Sophocles: Women of  Trachis, Antigone, Oedipus Rex & Coloneus.
 Euripides: Bacchae, Herkakles, Iphigenia among the Taurians, Cyclops.

Required Translations of Classical Dramas

Aeschylus  Aeschylus 2: Grene and Lattimore; The Oresteia: Fagles.

Sophocles Sophocles 1: Grene and Lattimore. Sophocles 2. Grene and Lattimore

Euripides Euripides 2. Grene and Lattimore;  Euripides 5: Grene and Lattimore.

Modern  tragic visions

Shelley: The Cenci; Wharton: Ethan Frome;  O'Neill: "Homecoming."
Soyinka: Mad Men and Specialists.

Additional non-dramatic works include, or short stories, horror stories and other investigations of the tragic, the terrible and the uncanny in literature and popular culture.

Film

Hitchcock 'Psycho'
Critical and reference works
 
Aristotle. The Rhetoric and Poetics of Aristotle. Intro by E.Corbett
Tripp  The Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology.

Tentative schedule of lectures and reading assignments

 Intro. What is tragedy? Mythical world of tragedy. Brief account of the theater.

 Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound (thru line 560). Aristotle, Rhetoric 2.4:  Friendship and enmity

The Polis. Freedom vs. necessity. Family problems. finish PB.
Aristotle, Rhetoric 2.1 (last paragraph): definition of the emotions. 2.2 : Anger

Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes.
Aristotle, Rhetoric 2.10-11: envy and emulation.

THE ORESTEIA. Gods at war with each other: all in the human family.
Aeschylus, begin  Agamemnon.
Aristotle, Rhetoric 2. 5-6: fear and confidence, shame and shamelessness.

Finish  Ag.
Aristotle, Rhetoric 2.8-9: pity and indignation.

 4  Tu 9/17

Unspeakable obligations and justified homicides: matricide, madness and redemption.
  Aeschylus, Libation Bearers. Aristotle, Rhetoric 2.7: kindness and unkindness.

Aeschylus,  Eumenides
Aristotle, Rhetoric 2.3: calmness.

 FIRST PAPER due Tu 9/24. SOPHOCLES. Character and circumstance.
 Sophocles, Women of Trachis

 Finish Trach., begin Antigone

 6   Tu 10/1

Aristotle's Poetics.... and what Aristotle's model doesn't account for. The play of destiny. The structure of the tragic plot. Finish Antigone. Aristotle's Poetics (TBA).

 Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus. (OT)

 7   Tu 10/8

finish OT.

 MIDTERM

 8   Tu 10/15

Modern visions: Hitchcock, Freud and the tragic legacy.
Heroes ...and fantasies. Oedipus' destiny completed.
Hitchcock, "Psycho."

       Th 10/17

 Sophocles, Oedipus Coloneus (OC)

 9   Tu 10/22

 Begin EURIPIDES
 Euripides, Iphigenia among the Taurians (IT).

 10  Tu 10/29

 Origins of tragedy. The satyr play.
 Euripides, Cyclops

 Euripidean tragedy. Modern theories of the tragic.
 Euripides, Bacchae

 11  Tu 11/5

 A modern Oresteia ?
 Soyinka, Madmen & Specialists,

     -- Metatheatrical speculation: Burke, Nietzsche and Soyinka.

 12  Tu 11/12

 Shelley: Aeschylus, Sophocles and Romanticism
 Shelley, The Cenci

     -- Hero cults: Oedipus
Coloneus, Beatrice Cenci, John Brown  and John Henry.

 13  Tu 11/19

 Euripides revisited.
 Euripides, Herakles

 Modern Oresteia, II
 O'Neill, Homecoming

 14   Tu 11/26
 

 15   Tu 12/3

 Tragic short novel
 Wharton, Ethan Frome

 REVIEW & CLASS PRODUCTION OF EURIPIDES'
CYCLOPS