CLAS 350: Greek and Roman Tragedy

CLAS 350-001: Greek and Roman Tragedy
(Spring 2019)

01:30 PM to 02:45 PM MW

Krug Hall 5

Section Information for Spring 2019

Memorandum on CLAS-350 (Greek and Roman Tragedy)

Olga Arans, Instructor

The class will introduce the students to the most important masterpieces of classical Greek tragedies by the great Athenian authors:  Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and to adaptation of the genre by the Roman philosopher and dramatist Seneca, whose masterpieces had passed the classical legacy on to European literary tradition.

Classical tragedy is the best preserved and most popular in the modern world of a variety of dramatic genres of classical antiquity. In its original cultural setting of classical Greece, drama was much more than a literary phenomenon: it was an event of mass public celebration, an essential part of religious, ritual, social, political life of Greek polis.

The life-span of creative period of Greek tragedy was very short: within a century the genre evolved (Aeschylus), reached its zenith (Sophocles), and the breaking point of crisis (Euripides, the most controversial and misunderstood, though most popular tragedian). But the grand monuments of classical tragedy, dealing with the most profound human conflicts and clashing moral principles, left to the posterity intellectual and poetic legacy of perennial appeal.

Greek tragedy is a unique genre. It is a very intellectual, even philosophical genre, despite its traceable connection to archaic ritual. While the word ‘tragedy’ (tragoedia) means “goat-song,” the true meaning of the genre transcends mere sentimentality or sadness over the life’s losses, as the events of classical tragedy inevitably rise from the characters’ psychological dispositions, moral choices and basic human values.

The course will discuss historic and cultural backgrounds of tragedy, theatrical conventions, dramatic structure, poetic techniques, individual styles of the authors, as well as the significance of the genre both in its immediate historic context and in consequent literary developments.

Course Information from the University Catalog