Pantelis Michelakis

Introducing a largely neglected area of existing interactions between Greco-Roman antiquity and media theory, this volume addresses the question of why interactions in this area matter and how they might be developed further. It aims not only to promote awareness of the presence of theclassics in media theory but also to encourage more media attentiveness among scholars of Greece and Rome. By bringing together an international team of scholars with interdisciplinary expertise in areas ranging from classical literature and classical reception studies to art history, media theoryand media history, film studies, philosophy, and cultural studies, the volume as a whole engages with numerous aspects of "classical" Greece and Rome revolving around issues of philosophy, cultural history, literature, aesthetics, and epistemology.Each chapter provides its own definition of what constitutes mediality and how it operates, constructs different genealogies of the concept of the medium, and engages with emergent fields within media studies that range from cultural techniques to media archaeology, diagrammatology, andintermediality. By seeking to foreground the persistency of Greco-Roman paradigms across the different strands of media theory the volume persuasively calls for a closer consideration of the conceptual underpinnings of the cultural practices around the transformation of ancient Greece and Rome into"classics."

Classics and Media Theory

Edith Hall

Oliver Taplin

Fiona Macintosh

Aeschylus' Agamemnon, the first play in the Oresteia trilogy, is one of the most influential theatrical texts in the global canon. In performance, translation, adaptation, along with sung and danced interpretations, it has been familiar in the Greek world and the Roman empire, and from the Renaissance to the contemporary stage. It has been central to the aesthetic and intellectual avant-garde as well as to radical politics of all complexions and to feminist thinking. Contributors to this interdisciplinary collection of eighteen essays on its performance history include classical scholars, theatre historians, and experts in English and comparative literature. All Greek and Latin has been translated; the book is generously illustrated, and supplemented with the useful research aid of a chronological appendix of performances.

Agamemnon in Performance 458 BC to AD 2004

Greek Tragedy on Screen considers a wide range of films which engage openly with narrative and performative aspects of Greek tragedy. This volume situates these films within the context of on-going debates in film criticism and reception theory in relation to theoretical or critical readings of tragedy in contemporary culture. Michelakis argues that film adaptations of Greek tragedy need to be placed between the promises of cinema for a radical popular culture, and the divergent cultural practices and realities of commercial films, art-house films, silent cinema, and films for television, home video, and DVD. In an age where the boundaries between art and other forms of cultural production are constantly intersected and reconfigured, the appeal of Greek tragedy for the screen needs to be related to the longing it triggers for origins and authenticity, as well as to the many uncertainties, such as homelessness, violence, and loss of identity, with which it engages. The films discussed include not only critically recognized films by directors such Michael Cacoyannis, Jules Dassin, and Pier Paolo Pasolini, but also more recent films by Woody Allen, Tony Harrison, Werner Herzog, and Lars von Trier. Moreover, it also considers earlier and largely neglected films of cinematic traditions which lie outside Hollywood.

Greek Tragedy on Screen

Iphigenia at Aulis is one of Euripides' most intriguing and challenging plays. It dramatises the myth of Iphigenia, the young virgin sacrificed by her father Agamemnon at the start of the expedition against Troy. Produced at the end of the Peloponnesian war, it explores the breakdown of social norms which turns Greeks against Greeks, men against women, and condemns young brides to death. Pantelis Michelakis examines the mythological, socio-political and institutional background, as well as the cultural, political, institutional, and theatrical contexts within which it was originally composed and performed.He highlights the main themes and major issues in modern criticism, and ends with an outline of its performance history and reception.

Euripides: Iphigenia at Aulis

"Iphigenia at Aulis is one of Euripides' most intriguing and challenging plays. It dramatises the myth of Iphigenia, the young virgin sacrificed by her father Agamemnon at the start of the expedition against Troy. Produced at the end of the Peloponnesian war, it explores the breakdown of social norms which turns Greeks against Greeks, men against women, and condemns young brides to death. Pantelis Michelakis examines the mythological, socio-political and institutional background, as well as the cultural, political, institutional, and theatrical contexts within which it was originally composed and performed.He highlights the main themes and major issues in modern criticism, and ends with an outline of its performance history and reception."--Bloomsbury Publishing

Iphigenia at Aulis

Euripides

Introducing a largely neglected area of existing interactions between Greco-Roman antiquity and media theory, this volume addresses the question of why interactions in this area matter and how they might be developed further. It aims not only to promote awareness of the presence of the classics in media theory but also to encourage more media attentiveness among scholars of Greece and Rome. By bringing together an international team of scholars with interdisciplinary expertise in areas ranging from classical literature and classical reception studies to art history, media theory and media history, film studies, philosophy, and cultural studies, the volume as a whole engages with numerous aspects of 'classical' Greece and Rome revolving around issues of philosophy, cultural history, literature, aesthetics, and epistemology. Each chapter provides its own definition of what constitutes mediality and how it operates, constructs different genealogies of the concept of the medium, and engages with emergent fields within media studies that range from cultural techniques to media archaeology, diagrammatology, and intermediality. By seeking to foreground the persistency of Greco-Roman paradigms across the different strands of media theory the volume persuasively calls for a closer consideration of the conceptual underpinnings of the cultural practices around the transformation of ancient Greece and Rome into 'classics.'

Maria Wyke

The first systematic attempt to focus on the instrumental role of silent cinema in early twentieth-century conceptualizations of the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East. It is located at the intersection of film studies, classics, Bible studies and cultural studies.

The Ancient World in Silent Cinema

Examines how the tragic dramatists persistently appropriated Achilles to address the concerns of their time.

Pantelis Michelakis

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