Queer Euripides: Re-Readings in Greek Tragedy

Description

This volume is the first attempt to reconsider the entire corpus of an ancient canonical author through the lens of queerness broadly conceived, taking as its subject Euripides, the latest of the three great Athenian tragedians. Although Euripides’ plays have long been seen as a valuable source for understanding the construction of gender and sexuality in ancient Greece, scholars of Greek tragedy have only recently begun to engage with queer theory and its ongoing developments. Queer Euripides represents a vital step in exploring the productive perspectives on classical literature afforded by the critical study of orientations, identities, affects and experiences that unsettle not only prescriptive understandings of gender and sexuality, but also normative social structures and relations more broadly. Bringing together twenty-one chapters by experts in classical studies, English literature, performance and critical theory, this carefully curated collection of incisive and provocative readings of each surviving play draws upon queer models of temporality, subjectivity, feeling, relationality and poetic form to consider “queerness’ both as and beyond sexuality. Rather than adhering to a single school of thought, these close readings showcase the multiple ways in which queer theory opens up new vantage points on the politics, aesthetics and performative force of Euripidean drama. They further demonstrate how the analytical frameworks developed by queer theorists in the last thirty years deeply resonate with the ways in which Euripides’ plays twist poetic form in order to challenge well-established modes of the social. By establishing how Greek tragedy can itself be a resource for theorizing queerness, the book sets the stage for a new model of engaging with ancient literature, which challenges current interpretive methods, explores experimental paradigms, and reconceptualizes the practice of reading to place it firmly at the center of the interpretive act. Cover Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS QUEER EURIPIDES: AN INTRODUCTION PART I TEMPORALITIES CHAPTER 1 HIPPOLYTUS-EURIPIDES AND QUEER THEORY AT THE FIN DE SIÈCLE AND NOW Textual Fragments and Scholarly Desires Unveiling Hippolytus The Reception of Euripides and Queer Theory CHAPTER 2 RHESUS-TRAGIC WILDERNESS IN QUEER TIME Epic Synchronicities of the (An)achronic Rhesus In the Dead of Night A Truncated Force CHAPTER 3 TROJAN WOMEN-NO FUTURES PART II ESCAPE/REFUSAL CHAPTER 4 IPHIGENIA IN AULIS-PERHAPS (NOT) The Horned Doe, or: Becoming Wild Queer Ticking Time Bomb Iphigenia’s Body in Pieces, or: Cut/Paste/Run Queer Choral Escape Routes, or: Gunaikes to Watch Out For On the Horizon CHAPTER 5 HELEN-QUEERING THE BARBARIAN People, Places, and Dramatic Tropes Gendered People, Places, and Dramatic Tropes Queering the Barbarian Seeming is Not Being: The Eidôlon as Queer Phenomenon CHAPTER 6 CHILDREN OF HERACLES-QUEER KINSHIP: PROFIT, VIVISECTION, KITSCH Profit and Kin Queer Kinship Vivisection and Kitsch Bodies CHAPTER 7 SUPPLIANT WOMEN-ADRASTUS’ CUTE LESBIANISM: LABOR IRONY ADHESION PART III FAILURE CHAPTER 8 MEDEA-FAILURE AND THE QUEER ESCAPE Good Wife/Good Life Failing Up Not Touching/Not Feeling CHAPTER 9 ALCESTIS-IMPOSSIBLE PERFORMANCE CHAPTER 10 ION-INTO THE QUEER IONISPHERE Queer Texts The Queer Foundation of Athenian Citizens Ionic Identity But Is It Queer? PART IV RELATIONS CHAPTER 11 HERACLES-HOMOSEXUAL PANIC AND IRRESPONSIBLE READING Putting Heracles on the Couch Piling Up the Queerness Playing Tugboat with Daddy: Some Queer Commitments CHAPTER 12 ANDROMACHE-CATFIGHT IN PHTHIA Catfights and Sister Wives The Intimacy of Polygyny Close Combat Catfights, Camp, and Hermione’s Queerness CHAPTER 13 ORESTES-POLYMORPHOUSLY PER-VERSE: ON QUEER METROLOGY PART V REPRODUCTION CHAPTER 14 HECUBA-THE DEAD CHILD, OR QUEER FOR A DAY CHAPTER 15 PHOENICIAN WOMEN-“DEVIANT” THEBANS OUT OF TIME Queer Time and Myth The Chorus’s Monstrous Soundtrack Antigone and Menoeceus: No Future in Thebes? CHAPTER 16 ELECTRA-PARA POETICS AND PARAONTOLOGY The Dead Don’t Dance The Parapoetics of Recognizing Orestes Electra’s Extreme Pregnancy Paraontology PART VI ENCOUNTERS CHAPTER 17 IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS-IPHIGENIA AND ARTEMIS? READING QUEER/PERFORMING QUEER Into the Rehearsal Room Returning to the Text Between Text and Performance: Among the Taurians CHAPTER 18 CYCLOPS-A PHILOSOPHER WALKS INTO A SATYR-PLAY PART VII TRANSITIONS CHAPTER 19 HIPPOLYTUS-QUEER CROSSINGS (FOLLOWING ANNE CARSON) CHAPTER 20 ARISTOPHANES, WOMEN AT THE THESMOPHORIA-REALITY AND THE EGG: AN OVIPARODY OF EURIPIDES Eggs and their Logics Egg Theory at Large Egg as Image The Baby in the Pot The Lover Beneath the Cloak The Wheel and the Funnel Conclusion: Making Reality CHAPTER 21 BACCHAE-“AN EXCESSIVELY HIGH PRICE TO PAY FOR BEING RELUCTANT TO EMERGE FROM THE CLOSET”? CONTRIBUTORS BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX