Samenvatting
Theatre History Summary (Complete)
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Een zeer uitgebreide samenvatting van de gekende leerstof voor het examen theatre history (Prof. Kyoko Iwaki).
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THEATRE HISTORYWeek 1: Introduction and Greek theatre
1. WHAT IS THEATRE?
Theatron (ancient Greek) means ‘a place to see’, spectre (old French) means ‘to view’ and shibai (Japanese
for theatre) mean ‘to be on the grass’. All these words suggest that theatre is not attributed to the
performance but to the audience. In ancient theatres the performances (with ritual natura) were
sometimes presented to God. Later on, theatre became a place for dialogues between humans.
1.1. MYTH AND RITUALS AS PROTOTYPES OF THEATRES
Ritual (repetition): A society becomes aware of forces that appear to in uence or control its food supply
and well-being. Having little knowledge of nature and the world around them, the people attribute both
good and bad occurrences to supernatural/magical forces. Perceiving an apparent connection between
certain actions and the results it desires, the group repeats, re nes, and formalises those actions into xed
ceremonies, or rituals.
Myth (stories): Stories which explain, disguise, or idealise, may then grow around a ritual. Frequently the
myths include representatives of those supernatural forces that the rites celebrate or hope to in uence.
Performers may wear costumes and masks to represent the mythical characters of supernatural forces in
the rituals or in accompanying celebrations.
1.2. WARNING!
The theory that theatres evolved from rituals and myth, were touted by those Western scholars who
believed in “cultural Darwinism”: they believed that theatres developed from the primitive to the
complex, and thus, purported that Western theatre which separated itself from rituals were superior to
non-Western art forms. They believed that the ”less-advanced” societies will ultimately reach European
culture if it evolves enough.
1.3. STORYTELLING AS PROTOTYPES OF THEATRES
Relating and listening: relating and listening to stories are seen as fundamental human pleasures. The
recalling of an event (a hunt, battle, or other feat) can be elaborated through the narrator's pantomime
and impersonation and eventually through each role being assumed by a different person.
Imitation: some see theatre as evolving from imitation of animals or narrative forms of dance and song. In
the 4th century BCE, Aristotle saw humans as naturally imitative—as taking pleasure in imitating persons,
things, and actions and in seeing such imitations (mimesis) as core principle of theatre.
Fantasy: in the twentieth century, the focus was put on fantasy, through which humans seek to reshape
reality into more satisfying forms than those encountered in daily life. The theatre, then, is one tool
whereby people de ne and understand their world or escape from unpleasant realities.
1.4. HOW RITUALS AND STORYTELLING BECOME THEATRE
Comic vision: comedy provides a detached view of human problems. Comedy requires suf cient
detachment to view deviations from norms as ridiculous rather than as serious threats to the welfare of the
entire group. Through this detachment, people can analyse their social problems.
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,Aesthetic sense: some early societies abandoned certain rites essential to their well-being; nevertheless,
they retained their oral tradition and admired them for their artistic qualities rather than for their religious
usefulness. Also, people who can organise performative elements into theatrical experiences of a high
order was important for the emergence of theatre.
Audience: and most importantly, a society that acknowledges the value of theatre as an autonomous and
artistic activity is of great importance. If nobody saw beauty and pleasure in the performance, the rituals
and storytelling will remain only functional rather than artistic.
1.5. PRE-GREEK PASSION PLAYS
Abydos passion plays: It is said to be a reenactment of the life or death of Osiris (son of the earth and the
sky), who was killed by his brother, Set, and whose body parts were buried at various spots in Egypt. Yet,
some scholars argue that there is no evidence that the resurrection of Osiris was performed. In this play,
the audience, who are the citizens of Egypt, believed in divine powers. These plays might have been
performed between 2500 BCE and 550 BCE in Ancient Egypt.
1.6. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ANCIENT EGYPT AND ANCIENT GREEK THEATRE
Ancient Egypt Ancient Greek
Years Around 3150 BCE to 641 AD Around 1500 BCE to 300 BCE
Places North Africa around Egypt Greece around city-state of Athens
Society Static and repetitive Dynamic and changing
Went onto a theatre in which new plays
Never developed theatrically beyond
were presented each year. Thus, one could
ritualised performances, repeating the
Theatre argue that Greeks were the one’s who took
same ceremonies year after year for
the decisive step toward an autonomous
centuries.
theatre.
1.7. CONSTRUCTION OF WHITE HISTORY THROUGH ERASURE OF AFRICAN AND ASIAN CULTURE
Martin Bernal has argued extensively that the contributions of Egypt, black Africa, and the Near East to
European culture were distorted during the 19th century by racial attitudes of that period. (Whitewashing)
“The paradigm of 'races' that were intrinsically unequal in physical and mental endowment was applied to
all human studies, but especially to history... To be creative, a civilisation needed to be 'racially pure.' Thus,
it became increasingly intolerable that Greece‚ which was seen by the Romantics not merely as the
epitome of Europe but also of its pure childhood—could be the result of the mixture of native Europeans
and colonising Africans and Semitics.” - Martin Bernal
2. GREEK TRAGEDY
2.1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
History: the roots of Western theatre can be found in the 5th century BCE in Athens, Greece, where
playwriting, acting, and theatre production began. Three basic dramatic forms: tragedy, comedy, and
satyr plays.
Venues: plays were performed in open-air theatres (theatron).
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, Plot: the plot of a tragedy was almost-always inspired by episodes of Greek mythology, a part of Greek
religion. Due to the sacred subject matter, which dealt with moral rights and wrongs, violence was not
permitted on stage, and the death of a character had to be heard from offstage.
Religion: greek theatre is intimately bound up with Greek religion. The Greeks had developed a religion
based on the worship of a group of gods, of whom Zeus was the leader along with his wife, Hera.
Origin: before the 5th century BCE, there were ceremonies honoring Dionysus, the god of wine, fertility,
and revelry. Later Greek drama was presented in honor of Dionysus, and a number of historians believe
that Greek drama originated in dithyrambic choruses presented to honor Dionysus.
2.2. DITHYRAMB
The dithyramb was a long hymn, sung and danced by a group of 50 men or boys. Its format may have
been like that of a modern-day choral presentation. The leader of the chorus recited or sang an
improvised story while the other members sang a popular refrain. This choral performance is thought to
be the beginning of Greek dramas.
2.3. GREEK THEATRE AND DEMOCRACY
Athens is credited with being the birthplace of democracy. In 510 BCE, the rulers of Athens established a
democracy of free citizens: that is, “male citizens” who were not slaves or of non-Athenian origin. For this
reason, it is thought of that democracy and theatre were born like twins in the Western world. Theatre
functioned as a testing place for direct democracy. The citizens attended the performance and discussed
the problems with other audience members. However, women, foreigners, children and slaves were
excluded from the democratic state. Though it is contested it is thought of that these suppressed people
were not allowed to attend theatre nor allowed to be part of the performance. It is believed that men had
to play the roles of women wearing masks.
2.4. THE PLAYWRIGHTS OF TRAGEDY
Aeschylus (525-456 BCE):
He was the rst to develop drama into a form separate from singing, dancing or storytelling. For this
reason he is often considered the founder of Greek drama and therefore of all Western drama. His plays
dealt with noble families and lofty themes and were praised for their superb lyric poetry as well as their
dramatic structure. Before Aeschylus, a drama had only one actor, who interacted with the chorus.
Aeschylus added a second actor; this was an important development in theatre practice, since it allowed
for a true dialogue.
Famous plays: The Persians (472 BCE), Seven Against Thebes (467 BCE),and The Oresteia Trilogy
(Agamemnon,The libation Bearers,The Eumenides, 458 BCE).
Sophocles (496-406 BCE):
He was particularly noted for his superb plot construction: he introduces characters and information
skillfully and then builds swiftly to a climax. The Greek philosopher Aristotle used Sophocles’ Oedipus the
King as the model for his own analysis of tragedy. For almost fty years, he was the most celebrated
playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens which took place during the religious
festivals of the Dionysia. He competed in 30 festivals of Dionysia and won 24 and was never judged lower
than second place.
He wrote over 120 plays but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Women of
Trachis, Oedipus Rex (or, Oedipus the King), Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus.
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,Euripides (480-406 BCE):
He is considered the most “modern” writer among the three: sympathetic portrayal of women, the greater
realism of his plays, his mixture of tragedy with melodrama and comedy, and his skeptical treatment of the
gods and heroes, which made them more human. The most controversial element of Euripides's plays
was his portrayal of the gods as human and fallible, a treatment that was said to undermine the traditional
moral order. He also became “the most tragic of poets” focusing on the inner lives and motives of his
characters in a way previously unknown: he in uenced Shakespeare, Racine and Strindberg among
others.
He wrote around 92-95 plays, and 18/19 of them have survived mostly intact: Medea, Andromache,
Electra, The Trojan Women, Orestes, and Bacchae.
2.5. THE CHORUS
The chorus consisted of 12 or 15 men that sang in unison, accompanied by a double-reed instrument
called an aulete. They danced as well.
Its importance is evident in the fact that a chorodidaskalos (a choral trainer) was employed for all festival
productions (although there was no theatre director). The Greek chorus performed a number of dramatic
functions. It provided expository or background information, commented on the action, interacted with
other characters, and described offstage action.
In tragedy, the chorus often represented the common people of the city-state ruled by the tragic hero.
3. GREEK COMEDY
3.1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
War: in 413 BCE, Athens suffered its worst reversal of the Peloponnesian war (431–404 BCE): A war fought
between Athens and Sparta. The Athenian Empire collapsed.
Decline of democracy: At the time Athens had democracy and Sparta had oligarchy (a small group of
elites controlling the state). And since the Spartans invaded and sieged the Acropolis, the Athenian
democracy collapsed as well.
Plague: During the second year of Peloponnesian War, a plague hit Athens and approximately 75,000 to
100,00 died. That is around a quarter of the population. Among the victims of the plague was Pericles, the
leader of Athens.
Economic decline: The economy of Ancient Athens was based on trading with other cities. But due to the
elongated war with other parts of Greece, Athens economy gradually declined and went into great
poverty after losing the war to Spartans.
3.2. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COMEDY AND SATIRE
Satyr plays Comedies
Tense Set in mythic past Set in present (ancient Greece)
Setting Rural Urban
Narrative Chaos Order and concludes with a compromise
Ending Not necessarily any reconciliation Offering absurd answers to real problems
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, Satyr plays Comedies
Immediately played after 3 tragedies
Played after Satyr plays and ironically
Purpose and made fun of the plight of the
mocked men who were in power at the time.
tragic characters
3.3. THE STRUCTURE OF COMEDY
1. An ordinary and happy-going everyday scene is revealed.
2. Something happens that impels a crisis.
3. Crisis is resolved.
4. Matters return to their, more or less, original state (or even better state).
5. A happy ending with conciliation through celebration, often marriage.
Unlike Satyr plays, which create chaos, comedy renders order though the play.
For this reason, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) rightly titles his epic 14th century poem Divina Commedia, or
“Divine Comedy”, even though the poem contains very few jokes. The “comedy” in this case is the cosmic
history of the Christian universe, which is full of suffering but all winds up harmonious and happy in the
end.
3.4. THE TWO PRINCIPLES OF ANCIENT COMEDY
1. The superiority theory:
The ancient theory of scornful laughter, now known as the superiority theory (or derision, or degradation
theory), was developed later by English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, whose famous statement in the
Leviathan (1,6) is as follows: “Sudden glory is the passion which makes these grimaces called laughter: and
is caused either by some sudden act of their own, that pleases them: or by the apprehension of some
deformed thing in another, by comparison whereof they suddenly applaud themselves.”
The superiority theory suggests that our humor os derived from the misfortune of others, which makes us
feel superior. That explains for example why a lot of us nd it funny when people fall.
2. The theory of incongruity:
The theory of incongruity, or disappointment was developed by German philosopher Immanuel Kant
(1724–1804). He observed that, “laughter is an affection arising from the sudden transformation of a
strained expectation into nothing”. This was later developed further by another German philosopher
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860): “The cause of laughter in every case is simply the sudden perception
of the incongruity between a concept and the real objects [...], and laughter itself is just the expression of
this incongruity.”
The incongruity theory says that it is the perception of something incongruous, something that violates
our mental patterns and expectations, that causes us to laugh.
3.5. PARABASIS (ORIGIN OF AUDIENCE INTERACTION)
The parabasis is a scene in which the chorus speaks directly to the audience, makes fun of the spectators
and speci c audience members, or satirises other subjects. Religious and political of cials attended
dramatic festival and were seated in the front row of the theatre; during the parabasis, the chorus singled
them out for ridicule. The people in power were placed in the front row so that they could be targeted by
the actors.
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, 3.6. ARISTOPHANES (450-388 BCE)
He was a playwright of Old Attic Comedy in ancient Athens. 11 of his 40 plays survive today. He is the only
extant representative of Old Comedy.
His plays consisted of chorus, mime, burlesque, bold fantasy, merciless invective unabashedly lewd,
outrageous satire, and marked freedom of political criticism. Life in Athens was changing rapidly during
his lifetime (greed for an empire was undermining the traditional moral order) and he used his plays to
ridicule the ideas and people that he felt were leading Athens to ruin.
His play ‘The Clouds’ made a caricature of Socrates. Since the attack was so vicious, Plato would later write
that it played a signi cant role in Socrates’ eventual arrest and execution in 399 BCE for the crimes of
impiety and corrupting Athenian youth by “making the weaker argument seem stronger.”
Aristophanes appears as a character in Plato’s Symposium, in which he speaks of the origin of love where
everyone else talks about politics and social struggles. (The origin of love is referenced in modern musical
Hedwig and the angry inch).
3.7. A SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF LYCESTRATA - BY ARISTOPHANES (BACKGROUND INFO)
The play is set during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, a war that had been raging for two decades by this point.
The strategy which Lysistrata – whose name literally means ‘disbander of armies’ – devises to end the war is intended as a comic
jumping-off point; but the play also raises important questions concerning war, power, politics, and gender. It’s well-known that
Lysistrata persuades her fellow female Athenians to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers. But this isn’t all she
does, even if it is the one thing everyone knows about the play. Arguably more important, Lysistrata and the women seize control of
the Acropolis, and the treasury – controlling the funding for the war against Sparta – giving them real economic and political power.
The plot of Lysistrata is reasonably easy to summarise. Lysisitrata persuades the women of Athens to withdraw all sexual favours from
the men until the men agree to end to war with Sparta. Along with a chorus of women who have already seized the Acropolis,
Lysistrata and her band of female revolutionaries defend themselves against a chorus of old men who try to smoke them out of the
Acropolis. The women’s plan works, and a Spartan herald turns up to declare that a similar plot hatched by the women of Sparta has
had the same effect on the Spartan men, and the war between the two city states comes to an end.
What’s (also) noteworthy about Lysistrata is that the women’s withholding of conjugal rights from their husbands is a trial for them,
too: the women of the play are women who obviously enjoy sex, and their sacri ce is a self-sacri ce, too, which many of them nd it
dif cult to keep up (as it were).
Another point to ponder when analysing and discussing Lysistrata is how feminist, by our own modern standards, Aristophanes’ play
really is. True, the Athenian women manage to wrest power from the menfolk and end the war, but they do so by using their bodies,
and sex, as a weapon – at least, rst and foremost it is their withdrawal of sexual privileges which tips the balance of power in their
favour. But then by the standards of the time, when sex was one of the few cards women could play in such a political game,
Lysistrata’s de ance of expectation and social mores must have seemed audacious.
But then we should also bear in mind that Lysistrata is a comedy, and whilst comedies often contain serious ideas, there is often a
carnivalesque sense of the overturning of the usual roles and conventions. As with another of Aristophanes’ plays about women
gaining political power, Assemblywomen, it’s questionable how seriously theatregoers would have taken the idea of women gaining
the upper hand. Lysistrata is an unusual Greek comedy because it has not one chorus, but two – one comprising men and the other
comprising women (though of course, both choruses would have been played by men in the original Greek theatre). This suggests
that Aristophanes seeks to play out the ‘battle of the sexes’ and to present the two genders side by side in debate, not that he is
offering a ‘feminist’ play avant la lettre.
Nevertheless, it is clever how Aristophanes, through Lysistrata, reveals the extent to which women are undervalued for their
contributions to Athenian society. When an indignant magistrate asks Lysistrata what she can possibly know of war, and why she is so
concerned with it, she responds that it is the women of the city who bear the sons who go off to ght (and, in many cases, don’t
come back alive). She points out that women already know how to manage an economy – that of the running of the household
(something even acknowledged in the etymology of the word ‘economy’, which comes from the Greek for ‘house management’). At
another point, Lysistrata likens the city of Athens to a clump of wool, drawing on a domestic chore she knows well to make a point
about how a good city functions.
Source: https://interestingliterature.com/2017/04/a-short-analysis-of-aristophanes-lysistrata/
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, 3.8. THE CHARACTERS OF LYCESTRATA
Lysistrata: an Athenian woman, the protagonist. Intelligent and driven, she knows exactly what she wants:
peace – and ultimately gets it. She encounters opposition but is wily and is able to enlist her sexuality, and
that of her fellow women, in order to achieve her goals. She is quick witted and able to argue persuasively
with ease and grace.
Calonice: an Athenian woman, Lysistrata’s neighbour. She is (not?) initially excited about the prospect of
the plan involving diaphanous clothing and fancy gowns but does enlist in the cause.
Myrrhine: an Athenian woman. Like Lysistrata, she is smart and able to use her sexuality to manipulate her
husband. She plays a pivotal role in the execution and success of the plot.
Chorus of old men: the Chorus of old men represent the frail old men of Greece. They are hopeless and
bumble around, consistently losing out to the women at every turn.
Stratyllis and her chorus of old women: Stratyllis and her chorus of old women, unlike the old men, are
clever and stubborn. They represent the women who are no longer fertile and are sent by Lysistrata to
occupy the Acropolis. They play a crucial role in the plot, though not explicitly using their sexuality.
Magistrate: the magistrate is knocked back by Lysistrata, who does not respect his authority at all and is
able to outfox him in a battle of wits. He represents the status quo that men are in power and know best.
He has his beliefs exposed for hypocrisy.
3.9. THE THEMES OF LYCESTRATA
1. Feminist determination:
- Lysistrata’s determination to persuade women.
- Lysistrata does not surrender even to the magistrates.
- This is striking when considering women had no public right in Ancient Athens. Women did not even
have the right to speak to men who they were not related.
- Lysistrata’s determination to stand up to Spartan women, older men, older women, and even
magistrates is a testament of her will to stop the war.
- But, we should remember that in ancient Greece, all actors as well the audience members were men.
2. Civil disobedience:
- Women from different sides of the war come together and conduct a sex strike to cease war.
- They bring their husbands to their needs, by standing up against them and denying sex until they stop
ghting with the opponents.
- However, feminist this may seem, at the end of the play, the women go back to their normative
domestic roles in their houses, which, ultimately, tells that this play is written by a white man in ancient
times and not by a contemporary woman writer. It is thus too far-fetched to say that Lysistrata is a
“feminist play” per se.
3. Sex:
- It is often said that the two motivating forces of humanity are sex and money: Lycistrata denies the men
sex and occupies the Citadel (The Acropolois) where the money is kept.
- The women struggle with chastity, but they are able to maintain their determination, and thus the men
succumb to their demands, blinded by their desperation for sexual ful lment.
- At the latter half of the play, men who return back from the war are all represented by huge erections,
which symbolises and mocks the behaviour of men.
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, 4. ANTIGONE BY SOPHOCLES
4.1. A SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF ANTIGONE (BACKGROUND INFO)
The action of the play itself begins when Antigone hears of Creon’s decision that her brother, Polyneices, will not be buried in
consecrated ground. Antigone decides to get hold of her dead brother’s body and bury it herself. However, while she is performing
a ritual over her brother’s body, she is captured. When she is brought before Creon, Antigone stands up to him, arguing that he
has overstepped his remit as ruler of the city, and is attacking fundamental moral values by trying to control Polyneices’ fate
in the afterlife. Indeed, she argues that such an action amounts to blasphemy against the gods themselves. As punishment for
her de ance, Creon has Antigone imprisoned in a cave with just enough food to keep her alive but make her gradually weaker until
she eventually starves to death. However, Antigone has a useful defender in Haemon, her betrothed, who also happens to be
Creon’s own son. Yes, Creon has condemned his own would-be daughter-in-law to a horrible death! However, Creon refuses to listen
to his son’s request and proceeds with the execution. Haemon storms out, telling his father that he will never see him again. At this
point, Tiresias the seer – the one who had revealed the true fate of Oedipus, Antigone’s own father, to him in Oedipus Rex –
intervenes and warns Creon that he is behaving contrary to the will of the gods. Symbolically, Polyneices’ unburied corpse is
festering, and the stench lls the whole of Thebes. But like all tyrants, Creon refuses to listen to Tiresias’ warning and tries to smear
the seer, accusing him of being in the pay of Creon’s enemies. However, privately Creon is worried by Tiresias’ words, and knows that
the prophet speaks the truth. He resolves to bury the corpse of Polyneices and let Antigone go. But his change of heart is too little,
too late: Antigone, rather than suffer a slow and agonising death, has hanged herself (as her mother did before her), and Haemon,
Creon’s own son and the man who loved Antigone, has killed himself over her corpse. As if this isn’t tragedy enough, Creon’s wife,
Eurydice, is distraught at news of her son’s death, and kills herself, too. At the end of the play, Creon is left standing over the bodies
of his wife and son.
Antigone raises a number of moral questions: what are the limits of a ruler’s power? Should there be clear limits? What inalienable
freedoms and rights are people afforded?
Like many great works of art, Antigone is more complex than a plot summary can convey. For instance, the above summary paints
Creon as a tyrannical ruler who drastically – and fatally – oversteps the limits of his power, with consequences both for others and, as
is always the case in Greek tragedy, for himself. He has to live with his mistakes, having lost his wife and son because of his tyranny.
Yet it is worth remembering, in Creon’s defence, the reasons for his harsh decree at the outset of the play. Polyneices, after he fell out
with Eteocles, had raised an army and marched on the city, with a view to seizing power and ruling the city. Would Polyneices have
treated the people of Thebes well? Or would he, in anger at his brother’s behaviour, have torched Thebes to the ground?
Creon’s decision not to allow Polyneices a sacred burial is designed to send a clear message that this man was an invader, a
would-be tyrant who the people of Thebes have been saved from. Of course, Creon’s aw is that he fails to realise that he
has become the very thing he declared he was saving Thebes from. Weighed against Creon’s decision as a ruler is Antigone’s
decision as a sister: that she owes her dead brother the funeral rites which will enable him to enter the afterlife and nd peace in
death. The conversation she has with her sister, Ismene – who refuses to help her – neatly summons the immoral nature of Creon’s
edict and the central clash of values embodied by the play: when Antigone says she cannot betray their dead brother, Ismene’s
response it to say ‘but Creon has decreed it’. The law says ‘no can do’ – but in this case, the law is an ass, and more immoral than
family values which have held sway for centuries, indeed longer. Antigone’s response to her sister is to ask ‘by what right’. By what
right does a tyrant forbid a sister her right to bury her own brother?
As the play emerges, what transforms Creon into a tyrant rather than a judicious politician is his stubbornness, and his
refusal to change tack even when all of the evidence points otherwise. If he had initially forbidden the burial of Polyneices
because he wished to honour and protect the people he rules, he has now become their worst enemy. When his son entreats him to
see sense, he refuses, and loses his son forever. Then, when Tiresias, who has the gift of prophecy, tells him he’s following the
wrong course, he secretly knows he has made the immoral decision but to save face he refuses to admit it, hoping to undo
his decisions quietly without everyone else nding out that he has gone back on his original decree. As John Burgess
observes in his analysis of Antigone in his excellent The Faber Pocket Guide to Greek and Roman Drama (Faber’s Pocket Guides),
whereas Creon’s authority had previously seemed to speak for the whole of Thebes, now it sounds like ‘naked self-
assertion’, the words of a man who is determined to impose his will, even if he knows it’s the morally wrong thing to do.
Despite its title, Antigone is really Creon’s play more than it is Antigone’s. He is the real tragic gure at the centre of the play’s
action, in that it is his tragic aw – his in exibility – which is his undoing, and for which he must undergo suffering or
catharsis by the end of the play. He also speaks more of the play’s dialogue than Antigone, who spends much of the second half of
the play walled up in a cave before returning as a corpse. In this respect, Antigone is like Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, which may be
named after the Roman general but is really the tragedy of Brutus, not Caesar.
Nevertheless, Antigone is one of the most signi cant female characters in ancient Greek tragedy, and this is one reason why the play
has continually proved popular to new generations. The other is that although at rst glance the play appears to be about a largely
unfashionable clash between civil and religious law, it has endured, and continues to be relevant to modern readers and audiences,
because it is really about honouring family in the face of inhumane and unjust – indeed, immoral – laws that forbid such a
thing.
Source: https://interestingliterature.com/2021/03/sophocles-antigone-summary-analysis/
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, 4.2. HEGEL’S CLASSIC READING OF ANTIGONE
Creon represents ethical order, and state authority, based on the principles of universality: laws of the
state. Antigone represents laws of the household gods, that is kinship.
State and Kinship do not come together, they are entirely binary. And kinship must give way to state
authority as the nal arbiter of justice.
Yet, there is one contradiction to this binary theory. For Hegel, going to the war to ght for the state is the
primary obligation for becoming a true national citizen. Yet, mothers are the only ones who can produce
citizens who ght in wars. In this instance, kinship approaches the state.
A Hegelian Tragedy is a tragedy between two good values and so one should give way to another. For
Hegel, a con ict between the good and the evil is not a tragedy.
4.3. THEMES OF ANTIGONE (ACCORDING TO HEGEL’S READING?)
1. Individual vs. State & conscience vs. law:
- Antigone represents the diversion from kinship and Creon represents the state law. The question that is
asked by Sophocles in the story is: is it ever right to break the law?
- Antigone also says that she is putting more loyalty to the gods above loyalty to her uncle. She is
compelled to bury Polyneices in the same manner as Eteocles, because, as she puts it: “The gods
require the same laws of burial be observed for both.”
- Who wins in the play is ambigous: Antigone dies because of her actions, but Creon suffers the loss of
his wife and son. Perhaps this means that Antigone was right all along, but if Creon had not taken a rm
stance against Polyneices and his rebellious faction in the civil war, who knows what anarchy might have
broken out? Sophocles is not interested in who is right or wrong, but rather what is right and wrong.
2. Gender and femininity:
- “As long as I’m alive, no woman will tell me what to do” - Creon.
- It seems fair to say that the outrage against Antigone’s act of rebellion is intensi ed by the fact that she
is a woman. Creon’s sentencing of Antigone is less an act of justice than of misogyny.
- She sacri ces her life by making a conscious decision not to follow the path that is set out for her: to
marry Haemon and be the future queen of Thebes.
- Through the character of Ismene, Sophocles provides the ideal woman at the time. Being subjective
and submissive to men.
- Eurydice, Haemon’s mother, is shocked by her son’s death and commits suicide. Her death is a direct
consequence of male brutality.
- Through the depiction of three women – one who is killed, one who kills herself, and one who lives to
continue a life of oppression – Sophocles gives us a scathing critique of the treatment of women in
Ancient Greek society.
- Irony is that at the time, this play would be performed entirely by men to an audience comprised solely
by men.
4.4. BUTLER’S QUEER READING OF ANTIGONE
According to Butler, Antigone and Creon are not binary gures.
Antigone has already departed from the realm of kinship by speaking in the language of sovereignty and
many around her expressing her as ‘manly’ (by the Chorus, messenger, and Creon).
Creon is ‘unmanned’ by Antigone’s de ance, and nally by his own actions.
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, “In her act, she transgresses both gender and kinship norms, and though the Hegelian tradition reads her
fate as a sure sign that this transgression is necessarily failed and fatal, another reading is possible in which
she exposes the socially contingent character of kinship, only to become the repeated occasion in the
critical literature for rewriting of that contingency as immutable necessity” (p.7)
She goes beyond ordinary kinship precisely because she is a daughter of an incestuous parents (Oedipus
and Jocasta). Antigone etymologically can mean “worthy of one’s parents” or can also suggest “anti-
generation”.
Also, according to Butler, Antigone never says ‘I did it (buried my brother Polyneices). She only says I
cannot deny it. (The English translated version does not deliver this nuance unfortunately).
Living between life and death: “Antigone’s death is always double throughout the play: she claims that
she has not lived, that she has not loved, and that she has not borne children, and so that she has been
under the curse that Oedipus laid upon his children, "serving death" for the length of her life. Thus death
signi es the unlived life, and so as she approaches the living tomb that Creon has arranged for her, she
meets a fate that has been hers all along” (p.23).
Week 2: Romeinse theater
1. ROMEINSE CULTUUR
1.1. GESCHIEDENIS VAN HET ROMEINSE RIJK
750 VC: Koninkrijk onder heerschappij van de Etrusken.
500 VC: Republiek met consuls, patriciërs en plebejers.
264–145 VC: Punische Oorlogen, overwinning breidt de Romeinse invloedssfeer gigantisch uit over het
middellandse zeegebied.
27 VC: Keizerrijk onder Augustus. Ongeziene welvaart tijdens “Pax Romana” gedurende 200 jaar.
391 NC: Christendom wordt staatsreligie.
476 NC: Einde West-Romeinse rijk.
1.2.1. ROMEINSE ENTERTAINMENTCULTUUR
Wagenrennen: sinds 7de eeuw VC.
- Etrusken hielden veel festivals doorheen het jaar, een mengeling van competitieve spelen (sport,
prijsvechten, wagenrennen) en meer theatrale activiteiten (religieuze ceremonieën, zingen, dansen,
jongleren, …).
- Bekendste gebouwen: Circus Maximus in Rome (600 VC), Hippodroom in Constantinopel (203–230
NC).
Gladiatorenspelen: sinds de 2de eeuw VC.
- Grotesk en bloederig entertainment waarbij politieke leiders kunnen uitpakken met de macht over de
dood van slaven, criminelen, dissidenten en wilde dieren. Dit was volledig op maat van de Romeinse
expansie die graag krijgsgevangenen en exotische dieren importeerden.
- Damnatio ad bestias – letterlijk “veroordeling door de beesten” was de halftime show tijdens
gladiatorenspelen.
- Wanneer het kon waren er verwijzingen die het publiek herkende: zoals een man wiens lever wordt
opgegeten door een arend naar analogie met de mythe van Prometheus. Of de venatio in opdracht van
Pompeius De Grote speelde de Punische Oorlogen na met een afslachting van tientallen olifanten.
- Bekendste gebouwen: Colosseum (80 NC)
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