Tragic Narrative

by Markantonatos, Andreas

• ISBN13: 9783110174014
• ISBN10: 3110174014
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-11-01
• Publisher: De Gruyter

Summary

This study of Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus demonstrates the applicability of narrative models to drama. It presents a major contribution not only to Sophoclean criticism but to dramatic criticism as a whole. For the first time, the methods of contemporary narrative theory are thoroughly applied to the text of a single major play. Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus is presented as a uniquely rich text, which deftly uses the figure and history of the blind Oedipus to explore and thematize some of the basic narratological concerns of Greek tragedy: the relation between the narrow here-and-now of visible stage action and the many off-stage worlds that have to be mediated into it through narrative, including the past, the future, other dramatizations of the myth, and the world of the fifth-century audience.

Table of Contents

Tragic Narrative
Narratology and Greek Tragedy	1	(6)
Time Games	7	(6)
Narrative Games	13	(6)
Audience Reception: The External Narratees	19	(7)
Beyond the Text: Music and Dance (Appendix)	26	(4)
Narrative Past
The Hold of the Past on the Present	30	(23)
Oedipus and the Chorus (I)	33	(6)
Oedipus and the Chorus (II)	39	(5)
Oedipus and Creon	44	(9)
Controlling the Past: Shaping the Future	53	(25)
Oedipus and Ismene	55	(10)
Oedipus and Creon	65	(4)
Oedipus and Polynices	69	(9)
Narration and the Battle
Designing the Battle	78	(22)
Oedipus and Thebes	79	(6)
Arrival of Creon	85	(6)
Arrival of Theseus	91	(9)
Praying for Victory: Narration and Prophecy	100	(9)
Narration and Concealment	109	(7)
Narration and Death
The Death of Oedipus: Deferral and Secrecy	116	(11)
Narration and Deferral	116	(7)
Narration and Secrecy	123	(4)
Praying for Death	127	(3)
Narrative Tactics: The Messenger	130	(17)
Looking Back in Sorrow: The Lament	147	(14)
Intertextual Reversal: Sophocles' Antigone	161	(6)
`Viewing' Colonus
Description and Focalization	167	(3)
Political `Viewing': The Athenian Colonus	170	(27)
First `Viewing': Antigone	172	(2)
Second `Viewing': The Stranger	174	(5)
Collective `Viewing': The Chorus	179	(18)
Mystical `Viewing': The Eleusinian Colonus	197	(30)
Colonus and Eleusis	198	(10)
Oedipus and Eleusis	208	(19)
Conclusion
Bibliography
Abbreviations	227	(1)
Select Editions	228	(1)
Works Cited	228	(63)
Indexes
General Index	291	(2)
Index of Greek Words	293	(1)
Index of Principal Passages	294