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The Work of Tragic Productions: Towards a New History of Drama as Labour Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2014

D.K. Roselli
D.K. Roselli*
Affiliation:
Scripps College
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Extract

The study of the ancient world has often come under scrutiny for its questionable ‘relevance’ to modern society, but Greek tragedy has proven rather resilient. From tragedy's perceived value in articulating an incomplete but idealised state of political and ethical being in Hegel to its role in thinking through the modern construction of politics and gender (often through a re-reading of Hegel), tragedy has loomed large in modern critical inquiry into definitions of the political and the formation of the subject.’ This is another way of saying that the richly textured tragic text has in some respects laid the foundation for subsequent theorising of the political subject.

Given the importance placed on such figures as Sophocles’ Oedipus and Antigone starting with Schelling and Hegel, it is perhaps not surprising that recent work in critical theory has tended to recast these particular tragic figures in its critique of Enlightenment thought. Nonetheless, there are problems with the adoption of these figures as paradigms through which tragedy becomes a tool to represent the ancient Greek polis and to work through modern political and ethical problems. The repeated returns to certain aspects of Oedipus or Antigone have contributed to a structured silence around the issue of class relations. Along with the increasingly dominant role of neoliberalism and the continuing importance of identity politics, much recent critical theory has contributed to the occlusion of class and labour from public discourse and academic research. In such a climate, it is no wonder that historical materialism rarely figures in academic works. I wonder whether another narrative is possible through the study of Greek tragedy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ramus , Volume 42 , Issue 1-2: The Enigmatic Context: Approaches to Greek Drama , 2013 , pp. 104 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © Aureal Publications 2013

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References

NOTES

1. See e.g., Hegel (1902), 297f.; Hegel (1977), 267f.; cf. Taylor (1975), 173-76, 204-06. More recent theorists include Butler (2000); Derrida (1986); Foucault (2000 and 2008). See Leonard (2005 and 2012) on the use of Greek tragedy in the formation of political and ethical subjects in modern critical theory.

2. Neoliberalism: Harvey (2005); Klein (2007); see further Zizek (1997). The history of Classics and class is itself complex: see Hall (2008). Critique of identity politics: Brown (1995), 60f.; Zizek (2000).

3. Recent discussion of ‘ordinary’ or ‘marginal’ people in tragedy: Carter (2010); Ebbott (2005); Griffith (1995), 72-81; Hall (1997); Said (2003); see Brock (2010) on the citizen body in tragedy.

4. Theoretical orientation to this approach: Deleuze and Guattari (1986); Lloyd (1994); Lloyd and JanMohamed (1990).

5. Industrial district: Young (1951). Hephaestus in Attic art: Hermary and Jacquemin (1988).

6. See Faraone (2001) for recent discussion of this fifth-century Athenian song.

7. Morris (1992), 360f.; see further Schultz (2007) on artists’ agency.

8. Funerary reliefs: Bäbler (1998); Bergemann (1997); Scholl (1996). I note that reliefs made of wood or other perishable (and cheaper) materials have been lost.

9. IG II2 8464; Clairmont (1993), i.258-60 (#202); Himmelmann (1994), 29. Another relief from c. 420 BCE depicts the cobbler Xanthippos with his family and tools of the trade: Clairmont (1993), i.404 (#630). See further Cornelia (2002); Himmelmann (1994).

10. Rancière (2011), 181; see also Rancière (1989). Despite Rancière's focus on 19th century France, his discussions are useful for rethinking the evidence from ancient Athens. See further Vlassopoulos (2007).

11. Positive value of labour(ers): Burke (2005); Desmond (2006), 31-35; Griffith (2006), 349-52; Schultz (2007). Cf. Austin and Vidal-Naquet (1977), 14; Zimmer (1982), 32.

12. Representation of workers: Ziomecki (1975); Vidale (2002). Labourers in Athens: Harris (2002); Rössler (1981). Land-ownership: van Wees (2001).

13. Wood (1994), 60; see further Wood (2008). Social and economic inequalities: Raaflaub (1996); Roselli (2007), 90-102. The ‘set of common attitudes and social values’ worked out in public spaces of the democratic polis (pace Ober [1996], 91) were also shaped by glaring social inequalities otherwise relegated by Ober to the private sphere.

14. Ar. Pl. 532-34; cf. Hes. Op. 381f.

15. Elite criticism of banausoi: Xen. HG 2.3.48, Oec. 4.2-3; Pl. Lg. 741e2-6; Arist. Pol. 1277b 1-3.

16. E.g., Austin and Vidal-Naquet (1977), 13-16; Burford (1972), 29f.; Vidal-Naquet (1986), 239. Such assumptions have influenced modern political philosophy and the conceptualisation of the public sphere: e.g., Arendt (1958), 37; Habermas (1989), 3. Cf. Raaflaub (1983), 531f.; Kron (1996); sec also n.11 above.

17. Political aims of banausoi: Arist. Pol. 1319a24-32, 1318b9-16; Xen. Oec. 6.5-8; cf. Ar. Ec. 385. See Keesling (2002), Neer (2002) on Archaic representations of banausoi in elite contexts of display.

18. See Csapo (2004 and 2010); Wilson (2002).

19. Csapo (2010), 103f.

20. Elite theatre families: Csapo (2010), 88f.; Sutton (1987).

21. Cf. Ar. fr. 694 K-A (preserved in Satyrus Life of Euripides): ‘as the things he makes them say [i.e., his characters], thus the man’.

22. Sophocles is notably absent from this discussion (cf. Frogs 76, 786-94, 1515-19).

23. E.g., And. fr. 4; Σ Ar. Ach. 469. See Gallant (1991), 115-17, on the dietary habits of peasants.

24. See Roselli (2005).

25. This material is not, however, evidence of the poet's own affinity for the ‘people’ (pace Dodds [1960], 129).

26. TrGF 5.1, T 52-54. The association between the New Musician Timotheus and Euripides (e.g., Satyrus Life of Euripides fr. 39, col. XXII; cf. Plu. Mor. 795d) suggests collaboration across performance genres.

27. Ar. Frogs 941, 1407-10, 1451-53. See also Ar. fr. 596 K-A, Σ Ar. Ach. 395, 400; TrGF 5.1, Τ 1.81-82, 91-92; 4.24-26; 53. Σ Ar. Frogs 944 notes that the slave Cephisophon was mocked in comedy for sleeping with Euripides’ wife. Cf. Kovacs (1990); Sommerstein (2003-2004).

28. Specialisation in the theatre industry: Csapo (2010). Comic poets were not immune to changes of collaboration: Harvey (2000), 110-12.

29. E.g., Pratinas TrGF 1 fr. 3.14: θ ητα (Hartung's emendation); Arist. Pol. 1341b. See Raaflaub (1983), 528-34, for elite views of poor workers as slaves.

30. Aristoxenos, fr. 115 Wehrli; Istros, FrGH 334 F 33. Vita: TrGF 4, T 1.1.

31. See Csapo (1999-2000), 409-15, for New Music in Euripides and Sophocles.

32. IG II2 2318.201-203; see Csapo (2010), 106f.

33. E.g., Plu. Sol. 29.6; Sophocles’ Vita, TrGF 4, T 1.4; Arist. Rh. 1403b31-35; see further Csapo and Slater (1995), 221-38.

34. E.g., the skeuopoios (Ar. Knights 232, Arist. Po. 1450b16-20); choral-trainer (D. 21.58-61; see Csapo [2010], 90-95). See further Roselli (forthcoming b).

35. See Csapo (2010), 117-39, on Callippides and acting styles; see also Green (2002).

36. See Roselli (2011) for discussion of the complex issues surrounding theatre spaces, funding and audience composition.

37. See Rössler (1981), 199-204, on the status ambivalence with terms for labourers. Ziomecki (1975), 125-35, discusses the assimilation of free craftsmen and slaves in Attic vase-painting.

38. See e.g., Csapo (2004 and 2010); Hall (2006); Le Guen (1995); Wilson (2002).

39. For discussion of these ideological shifts see Roselli (2011), 105-12.

40. There is little evidence for workers in fourth-century tragedy. Rhesus, most probably our sole extant fourth-century example (Feickert [2005]; Liapis [2009 and 2012]), contains only negativc references to workers. Ethical rather than social issues became prominent in some popular plays: see Hall (2007); Xanthakis-Karamanos (1980). Evidence from New Comedy suggests more circumscribed political claims made by workers: Roselli (forthcoming a).

41. Cf. A. fr. 307 for a simile with a blacksmith hammering on metal. A. Chamber-makers fr. 78 refers to a specific kind of moulding to be crafted; the status of this play (tragedy or satyr play) is not clear: KPS 209.

42. Polyneices' tomb is not given extended description (e.g., 249-52, 1203f.; cf. Tr. 1193-99) but its placement and construction are carefully depicted throughout the course of the play: see Roselli (2006), 152-54.

43. In [A.] Pr. labour and divine labourers (7-8, 45; cf. 47, 714f.) are central to the drama of resistance to all-powerful Zeus.

44. Cf. the critique of fifth-century radical democratic ‘demagogues’ as banausoi: Ar. Knights 128-45.

45. Cf. Easterling (1982), 168f.

46. Loraux (1990), 29; Zeitlin (1996), 364, cf. 350.

47. Csapo (2005), 301-15.

48. Charon is represented as a wage-labourer (Alc. 254, 361, 439-41), as he is on Attic white-ground lekythoi; see Miller (2010), 318.

49. Cf. E. Eurystheus fr. 372. See Stieber (2011) for attention to craftsmanship in Euripides.

50. Although he makes claims to distinguished Mycenaean blood (35-38), such (fictive) genealogies were capable of being claimed by ordinary people. See Carter (2010), 54f.; cf. Cropp (1988), 102. See Thomas (1989) on family genealogies and Burke (2005) on the economic self-interest of thetes.

51. The New Musical and thus more ‘professional’ choral songs in E. El. further point to the play's interests in and dependence upon professional labour.

52. Kosmopoulou (2002) discusses these monuments, but the idea that these workers were categorically ‘held in very low esteem’ (282) is untenable; see Raaflaub (1983), 531f. See Brock (1994), Lewis (2002) for women's labour in Athens. The domestic economy of tragedy merits further attention.

53. E.g., Schmid and Stählin (1940), 543f. See Börner (1981), 286-91, for discussion.

54. Csapo (1999-2000), 407, 422, 425.

55. Translation from Csapo and Slater (1995), 266.

56. See Brock (2010), 99; Zacharia (2003), 99. Loraux (1993), 200, stresses the ambiguity remaining with institutions concerning birth and parentage.

57. For text, translation, and discussion of the play: Collard etal. (1995), 17-52.

58. In contrast, S. Ph. presents a ‘king in rags’ underwritten by the play's aristocratic spin (see e.g., Rose [1992], 266-330); cf. the shipwrecked Menelaos in E. Hel. 416-24.

59. See Csapo (2010), 119f., for Callippides' portrayal of the ‘hero as a suppliant or beggar’.

60. The Euripidean Ino, enslaved and working as a nurse, also marks her claim to parrhesia: Ino fr. 413; cf. Plu. Mor. 506c. The emphasis on banausic political rights in Euripides differs from the treatment of the disguised Odysseus in Homer, the traditional model for such characters.

61. See KPS 41-73; Padgett (2000); Pipili (2000), 166f. There are connections between chattel slaves and satyrs in the Athenian imagination (e.g., Griffith [2002], 225f; Griffith [2005]), but the idea of satyrs as workers was also persistent.

62. See Lissarrague (1993), 212-14, on the ‘subordinate status’ of satyrs and their various occupations.

63. Cf. Pratinas TrGF 1, fr. 3.14 (with Hartung's emendation): the auloi are described as wageearning.

64. Cf. A. Sacred Delegation fr. 78a.7, 67 for Dionysus’ claimed ignorance of metalworking.

65. Cf. Achaios Hephaestus fr. 16b; see further KPS 516-23.

66. See KPS 28f.; Seaford (1984), 33-36.

67. Cf. S. Nauplius fr. 432 and Thamyris or Muses fr. 238 for skilled craftsmen in satyr drama.

68. Cf. Eusthatius Il. 297.35-37; KPS 262.

69. Euripides' Harvesters may have dealt with the same story: KPS 476.

70. Voelke (2001), 92f., 177; see also Griffith (2005), 168f.

71. See Rossi (1972) and Voelke (2001) for satyr drama as transcending political, social and geographic (e.g., rural vs urban) oppositions.

72. A late fifth-century choregic dedication in Ikarion may preserve evidence for satyr drama at the Rural Dionysia; see Green (1982). Social function(s) of satyr drama: Griffith (2002 and 2005); Hall (2006); Voelke (2001), 381-412; see also KPS 34-39.

73. Wolf (1984), 226; see Pirro (2011), 157-70, for the reception of Greek tragedy in Wolf's writings. The essays in Carter (2011) attempt to rethink tragedy's connection with politics.

74. E.g., Goldhill (1990 and 2000); Wilson (2009).

75. Focus on the poll's: e.g., Carter (2004); Rhodes (2003). Ethical and emotional frame of tragedy: e.g., Griffin (1998); Heath (1987). See further Carter (2007); Heath (2006).

76. E.g., Griffith (1995 and 2011); see further Rose (1992) and Wohl (1998).

77. ‘Socially symbolic acts’: see Jameson (1981).

78. Noble demos: Wohl (2002), 30-123. See also Roselli (2007), 104f., 149-51.

79. Gramsci (1971), 12; see further Femia (1981), 23-60; Forgacs (1988), 189-221.

80. Gramsci (1971), 52-55.

81. Cf. Spivak (1988) for critique of subaltern representation.

82. Lloyd (1993), 127.

83. Todd (1990), 159,169; see also Raaflaub (1996), 158.

84. Loraux (1986), 52; Austin and Vidal-Naquet (1977), 15. See Desmond (2006), 31-35, for a critique of such views.

85. Ober (1989), 44, 339: see further Burke (2005); Ober (1996); Strauss (1996). Cf. Harris (1996); Rose (2006).

86. Naturalisation was also possible for those deemed physically or financially useful to the polis; see Osborne (1981-1983).

87. In Friedrich Schiller's influential essay ‘On the stage as a moral institution’ from 1784, the theatre offers a model for the formation of subjects explicitly in the service of the state. According to Schiller (1895), 340, theatre formed subjects as ethical citizens: ‘Where the influence of civil law ends, that of the stage begins’. The contingencies of regionalism or class were overcome and left behind through the audience's identification with the representative figure of the male citizen. See Lloyd and Thomas (1998), 53-58.

88. Discussion of politics and polis in Arist. Po.: Hall (1996); Hanink (2011); Heath (2009); Wise (2008 and 2013).

89. See S. Hall (1996), 140, on the historical presence of ‘popular masses’.