Tragic Narrative: A Narratological Study of Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus

Description

This study of Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus demonstrates the applicability of narrative models to drama. It presents a major contribution not only to Sophoclean criticism but to dramatic criticism as a whole. For the first time, the methods of contemporary narrative theory are thoroughly applied to the text of a single major play. Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus is presented as a uniquely rich text, which deftly uses the figure and history of the blind Oedipus to explore and thematize some of the basic narratological concerns of Greek tragedy: the relation between the narrow here-and-now of visible stage action and the many off-stage worlds that have to be mediated into it through narrative, including the past, the future, other dramatizations of the myth, and the world of the fifth-century audience. Frontmatter......Page 1 Foreword......Page 5 Acknowledgements......Page 9 Contents......Page 11 Preface......Page 13 1. Tragic Narrative......Page 15 2. Narrative Past......Page 43 3. Narration and the Battle......Page 91 4. Narration and Death......Page 129 5. 'Viewing' Colonus......Page 181 Conclusion......Page 235 Bibliography......Page 241 Indexes......Page 305