Edith Hall

Bio: Edith Hall is an academic researcher from King's College London. The author has contributed to research in topics: Tragedy & Greek tragedy. The author has an hindex of 20, co-authored 71 publications receiving 1777 citations. Previous affiliations of Edith Hall include University of Oxford.

Inventing the Barbarian: Greek Self-Definition Through Tragedy

Abstract: Acknowldgements Preface Editions and abbreviations Setting the stage Inventing Persia The barbarian enters myth An Athenian rhetoric The polarity deconstructed Bibliography Index

The sociology of Athenian tragedy

Abstract: INTRODUCTION In the modern sense of the word 'democracy' it is the tragic treatment of the un -democratic aspects of Athenian society which has been the focus of much recent scholarship. The Athenian democracy was a xenophobic, patriarchal, and imperialist community, economically dependent on slavery and imperial tribute, and tragedy has proved susceptible to interpretations disclosing its expression of ideas necessary to the system's perpetuation, ideas implying the inferiority of foreigners, women and slaves. This scholarly perspective is inseparable from its own social context, which has since the early 1960s been characterised by the unprecedented success of feminism and anti-racism. This chapter suggests that through some recurrent types of plot-pattern tragedy affirmed in its citizen spectators' imaginations the social world in which they lived. The focus is on three types of pattern - plays in which male Athenian performers represented (i) mythical Athenians interacting with outsiders, (ii) women, (iii) significant slaves. Non-Athenians, women, and slaves were in reality excluded from the assembly and normally had to be represented by a citizen in the lawcourts (cf. Chs. 1 and 3 above, pp. 26-31; 61-6).

New Directions in Ancient Pantomime

Abstract: Introduction: Pantomime: a lost chord of ancient culture I. THE PANTOMIME DANCER AND HIS WORLD 1. Inside the mask: pantomime from the performers' perspective 2. The symbolism of costume in ancient pantomime 3. Pantomime performance and figured scenes on Roman sarcophagi 4. Pantomime actresses in Latin inscriptions 5. 'Mime' and 'pantomime': some problematic texts II. PANTOMIME LIBRETTI 6. The pantomime dancer and his libretto 7. Roman pantomime libretti and their Greek themes: the role of Augustus in the Romanization of the Greek classics 8. Virgil on the popular stage 9. 'et mea sunt populo saltata poemata saepe' (Tristia 2.519): Ovid and the pantomime 10. Seneca and pantomime 11. The influence of pantomime on Seneca's tragedies 12. Is the 'Barcelona Alcestis' a Latin pantomime libretto? III. THE IDEA OF THE PANTOMIME DANCER 13. Was pantomime 'good to think with' in the ancient world? 14. Lucian, rhetoric, and the protreptic genre 15. The metamorphosis of pantomime: Apuleius' Judgement of Paris (Met. 10.30-34) 16. Ancient pantomime and the rise of ballet Appendix: Jacob of Sarugh's Syriac Homilies on the theatre: an English translation

The Theatrical Cast of Athens

Abstract: ions serves well to introduce another period when such complex metapoetic theatre and metapoetic personiWcations was enjoyed—the late Wfth century bc. This chapter was originally inspired by the conWgurations of gender in the parabasis of Aristophanes’ Clouds. The chorus consists of Athenian citizens costumed and masked as female Clouds, who temporarily assume the voice of the male poet who had created their own comedy (528–37): Years ago I won your applause in this very theatre with The Bugger and the Prude—and I may say it’s always a pleasure to present a play to you, successful or not—well, since I was still a virgin girl, and so could not bring it up myself, I gave it to another girl to adopt; and then you very generously looked after it and fostered it with your applause . . . Now here comes this present comedy, to look for an audience equally discerning. She’s just like Electra in that play; she’ll recognise the lock of her brother’s hair if she sees it. And you can see what a modest girl she is.3 In this striking passage, whatever it signiWes about Aristophanes’ earliest career as a playwright, the poet uses gender and metaphor in a series of related images. He imagines himself as a young unmarried mother, and his play as her baby. He also conceptualizes the present comedy, Clouds, as a young woman, a sister, and a tragic heroine, Electra. It is clear from this passage that Old Comedy’s tendency to oVer metapoetic comment on itself and its creators, and these creators’ capacity for talking about their own history and their rivals, found in the discourse of gender, the female body, and sexuality a rich seam of metaphor, allegory, and personiWcation.4 Aristophanes’ images in the parabasis of Clouds belong to the same broad category as the conWgurations of literary mimēsis in Thesmophoriazusae, which have been shown by Froma Zeitlin to be inseparable from their context in the discussion of the representation of gender.5 More particularly, the images in Clouds preWgure Frogs, 3 Translation adapted from Easterling and Easterling (1962). 4 Much has been published on the blurred distinction between allegory and personification. Following e.g. Maresca (1993), this chapter seeks to avoid confusion by henceforwards using only the term ‘personification’ and avoiding ‘allegorical figure’. 5 Zeitlin (1996). Female Personifications of Poetry 171

Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity

Abstract: 1. Phrasing the problem 2. The nature and expression of ethnicity: an anthropological view 3. The discursive dimension of ethnic identity 4. Ethnography and genealogy: an Argolic case-study 5. Ethnicity and archaeology 6. Ethnicity and linguistics 7. Conclusion.

A Cultural Theory of International Relations

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. Fear, interest and honor 3. The spirit and its expression 4. The ancient world 5. Medieval Europe 6. From Sun King to Revolution 7. Imperialism and World War I 8. World War II 9. Hitler to Bush and beyond 10. General findings and conclusions.

The Nation in History: Historiographical Debates about Ethnicity and Nationalism

Abstract: In this thought-provoking new book, Anthony Smith analyses key debates between historians and social scientists on the role of nations and nationalism in history. In a wide-ranging analysis of the work of historians, sociologists, political scientists and others, he argues that there are three key issues which have shaped debates in this field: first, the nature and origin of nations and nationalism; second, the antiquity or modernity of nations and nationalism; and third, the role of nations and nationalism in historical, and especially recent, social change. Anthony Smith provides an incisive critique of the debate between modernists, perennialists and primordialists over the origins, development and contemporary significance of nations and nationalism. Drawing on a wide range of examples from antiquity and the medieval epoch, as well as the modern world, he develops a distinctive ethnosymbolic account of nations and nationalism. This important book by one of the world's leading authorities on nationalism and ethnicity will be of particular interest to students and scholars in history, sociology and politics.