Staged Narrative: Poetics and the Messenger in Greek Tragedy

277 Pages·2002·1.34 MB·English

by  James Barrett

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Staged Narrative
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Staged Narrative
Poetics and the Messenger in Greek Tragedy
James Barrett
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
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The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous
contribution to this book provided by Joan Palevsky.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2002 by the Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barrett, James.
Staged narrative: poetics and the messenger in Greek
tragedy / James Barrett.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0-520-23180-5 (acid-free paper)
1. Greek drama (Tragedy)—History and criticism.
2. Messengers in literature. 3. Narration (Rhetoric).
4. Rhetoric, Ancient. I. Title.
pa3136 .b36 2002
882(cid:2).0109352—dc21 2001005017
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication is both acid-free and
totally chlorine-free (TCF). It meets the minimum require-
ments of ansi/nisoz39.48-1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Pa-
per). (cid:2)(cid:3)
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For Otto
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Field of Vision
I remember this woman who sat for years
In a wheelchair, looking straight ahead
Out the window at sycamore trees unleafing
And leafing at the far end of the lane.
Straight out past the TV in the corner,
The stunted, agitated hawthorn bush,
The same small calves with their backs to wind and rain,
The same acre of ragwort, the same mountain.
She was steadfast as the big window itself.
Her brow was clear as the chrome bits of the chair.
She never lamented once and she never
Carried a spare ounce of emotional weight.
Face to face with her was an education
Of the sort you got across a well-braced gate—
One of those lean, clean, iron, roadside ones
Between two whitewashed pillars, where you could see
Deeper into the country than you expected
And discovered that the field behind the hedge
Grew more distinctly strange as you kept standing
Focused and drawn in by what barred the way.
Seamus Heaney
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
xi
List of Abbreviations
xiv
Preface
xv
Introduction
1
1. Aeschylus’s Persians:The Messenger
and Epic Narrative
23
2. The Literary Messenger,
the Tragic Messenger
56
3. Euripides’ Bacchae:The Spectator in the Text
102