5. Analysing Ancient Drama

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, Rosie explores attitudes to tragedy and comedy, from the parodies of tragedy found in Aristophanes to the more formal discussion of what made a good tragedy in Aristotle’s Poetics.

Course

In this course, we explore fifth-century Greek theatre, focusing in particular on the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. In this course, we look at key dramatic conventions of fifth-century theatre, the relationship between the tragedy/comedy and contemporary politics and religion, and how contemporary Athenians understood the role and nature of tragedy.

Lecturer

Dr Rosie Wyles researches the cultural history of the ancient world through theatre performance. She did her undergraduate studies in Classics at Oxford and was awarded her PhD on the ancient performance reception of Euripides from the University of London in 2007. Her research interests include Greek and Roman performance arts, costume, reception within antiquity and beyond it, and gender.