"Women on the Edge, a collection of Alcestis, Medea, Helen, and Iphegenia at Aulis, provides a broad sample of Euripides' plays focusing on women, and spans the chronology of his surviving works, from the earliest, to his last, incomplete, and posthumously produced masterpiece. Each play shows women in various roles--slave, unmarried girl, devoted wife, alienated wife, mother, daughter--providing a range of evidence about the kinds of meaning and effects the category woman conveyed in ancient Athens. The female protagonists in these plays test the boundaries--literal and conceptual--of their lives.
Although women are often represented in tragedy as powerful and free in their thoughts, speech and actions, real Athenian women were apparently expected to live unseen and silent, under control of fathers and husbands, with little political or economic power. Women in tragedy often disrupt ""normal"" life by their words and actions: they speak out boldly, tell lies, cause public unrest, violate custom, defy orders, even kill. Female characters in tragedy take actions, and raise issues central to the plays in which they appear, sometimes in strong opposition to male characters. The four plays in this collection offer examples of women who support the status quo and women who oppose and disrupt it; sometimes these are the same characters."
Edited by:
Ruby Blondell,
Mary-Kay Gamel,
Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz,
Bella Vivante
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 28mm
Weight: 950g
ISBN: 9780415907743
ISBN 10: 0415907748
Series: The New Classical Canon
Pages: 512
Publication Date: 22 December 1998
Audience:
College/higher education
,
General/trade
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
,
Primary
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Preface,INTRODUCTION,I. Athens and Greek Culture,Political History, Religion, Fate and Responsibility, Self and Other,II.Athenian Tragedy: A Civic Institution,Tragedy and Athenian Democracy, Audience, The Festival, Production and Performance, The Chorus, Formal Elements, Use of Myth,III.Women in Athens,Athenian Women and the Ideology of Gender, Women and Marriage: From Parthenos to Gune, Women and Athenian Tragedy,IV.Euripides,Life and Works, Ancient Reactions to Euripides, Euripides as a Playwright, Women in Euripides,V.The Afterlife of Euripides,Survival and Canonization, Textual Criticism, The Artistic Legacy,FOUR PLAYS BY EURIPIDES,Alcestis: Translated by Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz,Medea: Translated by Ruby Blondell,Helen: Translated by Bella Zweig,Iphigenia at Aulis: Translated by Mary-Kay Gamel,Notes,References
Ruby Blondell is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Washington. Mary-Kay Gamel is Associate Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Santa-Cruz. Nancy SorkinRabinowitz is Professor of Comparative Literature at Hamilton College. Bella Vivante is Senior Lecturer in Humanities at the University of Arizona.
Reviews for Women on the Edge: Four Plays by Euripides
I highly recommend this collection to anyone eager to encounter an innovative reading of Euripidean drama. -- Monica Silveira Cyrino, University of New Mexico Theatre Jounral ...in a class by itself... This would make a fine text for advanced students of literature in translation or women in antiquity. -- Classical Outlook This is not your grandfather's translation of Euripedes... Provides a good introduction to feminist readings of these plays, accessible translations, helpful background material, and openness about the translators' methods... A valuable addition to translations of Euripidean tragedy. -- Bryn Mawr Classical Review
