Staged narrative
Subtitle: poetics and the messenger in Greek tragedy
By: James Barrett.
Series: The Joan Palevsky imprint in classical literature
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 250
Subjects: Greek drama (Tragedy) -- History and criticism.; Narration (Rhetoric) -- History -- To 1500.; Messengers in literature.; Rhetoric, Ancient.
Description: "The messenger who reports important action that has occurred offstage is a familiar inhabitant of Greek tragedy. A messenger informs us about the death of Jocasta and the blinding of Oedipus, the madness of Heracles, the slaughter of Aigisthus, and the death of Hippolytus, among other important events. Despite its prevalence, this conventional figure remains little understood.

Combining several critical approaches - narrative theory, genre study, and rhetorical analysis - this lucid and sophisticated study develops a synthetic view of the messenger of Greek tragedy, showing how this role illuminates some of the genre's most persistent concerns, especially those relating to language, knowledge, and the workings of tragic theater itself.".

"This study, thoroughly informed by literary theory, shows that the messenger speaks with a voice unique on the tragic stage, one that offers important testimony about tragedy as a genre and one that also illuminates fifth-century B.C.E. experimentation with modes of speech. Breaking new ground in the study of Athenian tragedy, Barrett deepens our understanding of many central texts and of a form of theater that highlights the fragility and limits of human knowledge."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Based on author's thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-238) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Aeschylus' Persians: the messenger and epic narrative; title: The literary messenger, the tragic messenger; title: Euripides' Bacchae: the spectator in the text; title: Homer and the art of fiction in Sophocles' Electra; title: Rhesos and poetic tradition.