Rehearsals of Manhood: Athenian Drama as Social Practice

Description

A bold reconception of ancient Greek drama by one of the most brilliant and original classical scholars of his generation When John Winkler died in 1990, he left an unpublished manuscript containing a highly original interpretation of the development and meaning of ancient Greek drama. Rehearsals of Manhood makes this groundbreaking work available for the first time, presenting an entirely novel picture of Greek tragedy and a vivid portrait of the cultural poetics of Athenian manhood. Ancient Athens was a military conclave as well as an urban capital, and male citizens were expected to embody the ideal of the Athenian citizen-soldier. Winkler understands Attic drama as a secular manhood ritual, a collaborative aesthetic and civic enterprise focused on the initiation of boys into manhood and the training, testing, and representation of young male warriors. Past efforts to discover the origins and development of Greek tragedy have largely treated drama as a literary genre, isolating it from other Athenian social practices. Winkler returns Greek tragedy to its social context, showing how it was one among many forms of display and performance cultivated by elite males in ancient Greece. The final work of a celebrated classical scholar, Rehearsals of Manhood highlights the civic function of the dramatic festivals at classical Athens as occasions for the examination and representation of boys on the verge of manhood, and offers a fresh explanation of how dramatic performance fit into the social life and gender politics of the Athenian state. Cover Contents List of Illustrations Foreword by David M. Halperin Introduction Chapter 1. Hippokleides Dances: Military Training and Other Dramas of Masculine Display A Duel on the Border: The Trick of the Black Goatskin The Ephebate in Athens Dionysos and the Apatouria Paideia/Andreia Performances/Formations Playing with Manhood: Women in Armor, Men in Drag Chapter 2. Phallic Theatrics: Staging the Body Politic The Politics of Costume Phallos Politikos Archaic Costume The Shape of the Theater Bodies, Costumes, Auditoria, Politics Chapter 3. Scenarios of Risk: Cockfighting and Kindunos Cocky Ephebes The Theater of Youth The Drama of Danger Color Plates Trials of Manhood The Ephebe of All Ephebes Chapter 4. An Oscar for Iphigeneia: The Canon according to Aristotle Aristotle’s General Theory of Narrativity Aristotle’s Special Theory of Narrativity Loose Canons Aristotle on the Social Classes of Literature Aristotle on Comedy The Best Tragedy Appendix I: Tragōidoi Appendix II: Phluakes Afterword by Kirk Ormand Abbreviations of Classical Sources Abbreviations of Journals and Books Bibliography Index Locorum General Index A Note on the Author