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Loading... Electra [3 plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides]by Sophocles
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Hmm. Well. Pound has shifted the play into some kind of 1950s American idiom, which is distracting and anachronistic, but he’s also left a heap of the original ancient Greek in, for dramatic effect. The overall feel is of watching a subtitled film, where the actors have also been badly dubbed into English. Nothing matches, nothing scans, and the whole thing is an unwatchable mess. 50. Electra by Sophocles, translated by Anne Carson - introduction and notes by Michael Shaw - editors’ forward by Peter Burian and Alan Shapiro first performed: c. 405 bce translation 2001 (Anne's introduction comes from a 1993 lecture) format: 130 page Oxford University Press paperback acquired: borrowed from my library read: Aug 11-15 rating: 4 stars Just another Greek Tragedy, but this was different in presentation. Anne Carson's translation was excellent and brought alive the tension in Electra's language in the first key first parts of this play. And the two introductions, one by Shaw and the other by Carson, pick apart the play and it's structure, revealing a lot more of what is there. The play itself is a tragedy with a "happy" ending. Electra is trapped, living with her mother and her mother's lover, she is in serious danger, and cannot marry and bear any children. She can only cooperate. But, her brother Orestes will rescue her by killing their own mother, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus, with the help of some clever word play. (in front of a covered corpse, that Aegisthus does not know is Clytemnestra.) Orestes: This isn't my corpse—it's yours. Yours to look at, yours to eulogize. Aegisthus: Yes good point. I have to agree. You there—Clytemnestra must be about in the house— call her for me. Orestes: She is right before you. No need to look elsewhere. Clearly a happy play. Electra, despite her trap, becomes a presence. She maintains pitiful public devotion to her father, living miserably in mourning, and, in doing so, skillfully wields some power and influence. At the heart of this play is Electra's language and how she works over the other characters. She becomes the fury who harasses the murderers. "By dread things I am compelled. I know that. I see the trap closing. I know what I am. " 2016 https://www.librarything.com/topic/226898#5695936 no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesIs contained inThe Great Books of the Western World, Vol. 5: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes by Encyclopedia Britannica (indirect) Great Books Of The Western World - 54 Volume Set, Incl. 10 Vols of Great Ideas Program & 10 Volumes Gateway To Great Books by Robert Maynard Hutchins (indirect) GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD--54 Volumes 27 volumes 1961-1987 GREAT IDEAS TODAY (Yearbooks) 10 volumes GATEWAY TO THE GREAT BOOKS 10 volumes GREAT IDEAS PROGRAM. Total 101 Volumes. by Robert Maynard Hutchins (indirect) The Complete Greek tragedies by David Grene (indirect) Has as a student's study guide
Sophocles' Electra is a riveting play with a long and varied reception. Its nuanced treatment of matricidal revenge with all the questions it raises; its compelling depictions of the idealistic, long -grieving, rebellious Electra; her compliant sister; her brother; and her mother; and its superb poetry have all contributed to making this one of Sophocles' most admired plays, as have the moral issues it raises and its political reverberations. In recent decades it has been repeatedly translated, adapted, and produced, sometimes on its own, sometimes in combination with selections from Aeschylus' Libation Bearers and (more often) Euripides' Electra. While the play certainly stands on its own in any language, reading it in the original Greek adds immense value. A commentary on the Greek text would enrich its reading by elucidating the words and world of the ancient language for those who are reading it more than twenty- five hundred years after the play was written. Such a commentary would also contribute to our understanding of other ancient Greek texts, not necessarily because they use the same words in the same way, but by providing information for contrast, comparison, and clarification. This commentary includes an introduction, text and notes, an abbreviations list, a stylistic & metrical terminology list, an appendix of recurrent words, and, a list of irregular verbs and their principal parts. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)882.01Literature Greek and other Classical languages Greek drama and Classical drama Greek drama and Classical drama Philosophy and TheoryLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Aegisthus, what were you thinking? There is a nobility in the Divine. There’s also Icarian agency. Think Cobain, “Come back as Fire/Burn all the liars/Leave a blanket of ash on the ground. The plot was the only one pursued by three of the Greek masters (Euripides and Aeschylus being the other two) which invites comparisons, though apparently the chronology is regrettably unclear. ( )