Performing Greek comedy [electronic resource] / Alan Hughes.
2012
PA3201 .H84 2012eb
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Title
Performing Greek comedy [electronic resource] / Alan Hughes.
Author
Hughes, Alan, 1939-
ISBN
9781139338516
113933851X
9781139336772 (electronic bk.)
1139336770 (electronic bk.)
9781107009301
1107009308
113933851X
9781139336772 (electronic bk.)
1139336770 (electronic bk.)
9781107009301
1107009308
Publication Details
Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (xvi, 311 p.) : ill.
Item Number
9786613571922
Call Number
PA3201 .H84 2012eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
792.2/30938 792.230938
Summary
"Alan Hughes presents a new complete account of production methods in Greek comedy. The book summarises contemporary research and disputes, on such topics as acting techniques, theatre buildings, masks and costumes, music and the chorus. Evidence is re-interpreted and traditional doctrine overthrown. Comedy is presented as the pan-Hellenic, visual art of theatre, not as Athenian literature. Recent discoveries in visual evidence are used to stimulate significant historical revisions. The author has directly examined 350 vase scenes of comedy in performance and actor-figurines, in 75 collections, from Melbourne to St Petersburg. Their testimony is applied to acting techniques and costumes, and women's participation in comedy and mime. The chapters are arranged by topic, for convenient reference by scholars and students of theatre history, literature, classics and drama. Overall, the book provides a fresh practical insight into this continually developing subject"-- Provided by publisher.
"Theatre is a mimetic art, composite and ephemeral. Directed by an underlying aesthetic, conscious or intuitive, theatrical imitation may be culturally determined or intellectually constructed. Performers deliberately imitate the 'other', whether human or animal, divine or spirit, allegory or force of nature. This mimesis is a compound, a variable array of associated arts, which may include music, dance, song and speech, supported by oral or literary composition. And every performance occurs in a unique, irrecoverable moment of time. Greek theatre is no exception. Ancient performances cannot be revived, but we have learned a good deal about their form and circumstances. This is a book about performance practice, the art of comic theatre in classical Greece. Historically, comedy has been examined less thoroughly than tragedy, in part perhaps because the extant texts are fewer and less representative, and documentary evidence comparatively scarce. While thirty-three extant tragedies are attributed to the three most celebrated poets, we have only eleven comedies by Aristophanes, and one by Menander, with some substantial fragments. The works of their rivals have disappeared"-- Provided by publisher.
"Theatre is a mimetic art, composite and ephemeral. Directed by an underlying aesthetic, conscious or intuitive, theatrical imitation may be culturally determined or intellectually constructed. Performers deliberately imitate the 'other', whether human or animal, divine or spirit, allegory or force of nature. This mimesis is a compound, a variable array of associated arts, which may include music, dance, song and speech, supported by oral or literary composition. And every performance occurs in a unique, irrecoverable moment of time. Greek theatre is no exception. Ancient performances cannot be revived, but we have learned a good deal about their form and circumstances. This is a book about performance practice, the art of comic theatre in classical Greece. Historically, comedy has been examined less thoroughly than tragedy, in part perhaps because the extant texts are fewer and less representative, and documentary evidence comparatively scarce. While thirty-three extant tragedies are attributed to the three most celebrated poets, we have only eleven comedies by Aristophanes, and one by Menander, with some substantial fragments. The works of their rivals have disappeared"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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Performing Greek comedy.
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Table of Contents
1. Comedy in art, Athens and abroad
2. Poets of Old and Middle Comedy
3. Theatres
4. The comic chorus
5. Music in comedy
6. Acting, from lyric to dual consciousness
7. Technique and style of acting comedy
8. The masks of comedy
9. Costumes of Old and Middle Comedy
10. Comedy and women
11. New Comedy
Catalogue of objects discussed: vases, terracottas, other media
Bibliography.
2. Poets of Old and Middle Comedy
3. Theatres
4. The comic chorus
5. Music in comedy
6. Acting, from lyric to dual consciousness
7. Technique and style of acting comedy
8. The masks of comedy
9. Costumes of Old and Middle Comedy
10. Comedy and women
11. New Comedy
Catalogue of objects discussed: vases, terracottas, other media
Bibliography.