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sophocles: electra |
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Sophocles: Electra 2008 • 978-1-58510-281-5 • paper • 142 pages • 5 ½ x 8 ½ • $8.95 A clear and close translation of the original Greek including fresh interpretation of the play and an essay that examines the Afterlife of Electra in literature. Extensive notes highlight cultural issues to help readers understand the underlying themes in the story, as well as make comparisons to other, contemporary Greek versions of the myth, giving a well-rounded and comprehensive view of the tale of Electra as a whole. . | About the Authors | Table of Contents | Preface | Review |
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Description Translation with introduction, extensive notes and interpretive essay. Introduction discusses theatre and performance in ancient Greece, the Electra myth, the three playwrights who wrote about Electra at that time, and a plot summary. Text also includes "afterlife" essay which discusses adaptations of the play, as well as touching on other ways Electra has had influence.
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Hanna M. Roisman is the Francis F. Bartlett and Ruth K. Bartlett Professor of Classics at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Her special interests are Homeric epic, Greek and Roman tragedy, and Classical literature and modern film.
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Table
of Contents
Preface Introduction
Theater and Performance The
Myth The
Three Playwrights: The Dilemma of Matricidal Revenge On
the Translation Electra: Translation and
Commentary Notes Interpretative Essay The
Prologue: Enter the Avengers In
Evil Straits
Confrontation with the Chorus The
Sisters’ Quarrels The
Revenge
Does Clytemnestra Deserve to Die?
Rebirth, Reunion, and Revenge
Some Words in Conclusion Afterlife
Adaptations
Voltaire, Oreste (1750)
Hugo von Hofmannstahl, Elektra (1903)
Jean Paul Sartre, The Flies (Les Mouches) (1943)
John Barton, The Greeks (1980) The
Electra Complex and the Repudiation of Electra
Carl Jung: The Electra Complex
Eugene O’Neill, Mourning Becomes Electra The
Repudiation Bibliography Index
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Sophocles’ Electra was the first play I read in Greek, but the years that passed have not made it any less of a challenge for me. Each reading of this tragedy presents new questions, provokes doubts about previous interpretations, and demands new scrutiny. I enjoyed writing this book, yet I still do not have absolute answers to the troubling feeling with which a reader is left after reading this drama about matricide. If the book brings the reader to delve further into the many questions the play raises about matricidal revenge and the motives that prompt it, it has achieved its goal. The book is intended mainly for students and non-professionals. The Introduction discusses briefly the Greek theater and performance, the myth of Electra, and Aeschylus’ and Euripides’ treatments of the myth. It also briefly notes the scholarly debate regarding the play’s judgment of the matricidal revenge it dramatizes, and presents some of the issues of concern in the translation of the play. The translation, which aims to combine readability with fidelity to the Greek, is accompanied by notes aimed at helping the reader with the play’s mythic, historical, cultural and literary aspects. In the Interpretative Essay, I present my own reading of the play, and in the Afterlife a brief account of the legacy of Sophocles’ treatment of the myth. I was unfortunately unable to consult the most recent and substantial commentary, by P.J. Finglass, Electra: Sophocles edited with introduction and commentary (Cambridge, UK , New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), since it arrived at my college library only after the completion of my manuscript.
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