Table Of ContentAndreas Markantonatos
Tragic Narrative
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DE
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Untersuchungen zur
antiken Literatur und Geschichte
Herausgegeben von
Gustav-Adolf Lehmann, Heinz-Günther Nesselrath
und Otto Zwierlein
Band 63
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
2002
Tragic Narrative
A Narratological Study of Sophocles'
Oedipus at Colonus
by
Andreas Markantonatos
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
2002
© Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines
of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.
Library of Congress — Cataloging-in-Publication-Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the Library
of Congress
Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging in Publication Data
Markantonatos, Andreas:
Tragic narrative : a narratological study of Sophocles' Oedipus at
Colonus / by Andreas Markantonatos. - Berlin ; New York : de
Gruyter, 2002
(Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte ; Bd. 63)
Zugl.: Oxford, Univ., Diss., 2001
ISBN 3-11-017401-4
© Copyright 2002 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permis-
sion in writing from the publisher.
Printed in Germany
Cover design: Christopher Schneider, Berlin
Printing and binding: Hubert & Co., Göttingen
Foreword
When Andreas Markantonatos began this work, there existed almost no
books applying narratology to any form of drama. There was too a
prevailing scepticism as to whether narratology could legitimately be
applied to drama at all: drama, being essentially a matter of 'mimesis'
rather than narration, of 'showing' rather than 'telling', does not have a
controlling narrator, so how could narratology be used in its analysis? As
his work proceeded however, it soon became clear that narratology has
much to offer the study of drama. Dr Markantonatos saw for instance that
techniques that had been applied to film could with perfect appropriateness
be applied to drama. The narrator is absent from the play's events, but
none the less remains a guiding presence, performing all the acts of
omniscient narrators elsewhere, ordering the actions, deciding whether
events will be staged or narrated by a character, exploiting the split
between stage-time and text-time and so on. Similarly, the audience, as
well as the characters in the play, can be constructed as narratees, and the
interplay between the knowledge of each set of narratees is available to
the author as in other genres.
In recent years, others have followed a similar path, but this book
remains the only volume dedicated to a thorough demonstration of what
narratology and its varied techniques can contribute to the study of a
single play. It is now clear that drama responds to narratological scrutiny
as well as other genres and in equally interesting ways. There are, it is
true, narrative constraints in drama which do not exist in other genres, but
drama has a corresponding range of strategies that compensates for these
constraints and offers possibilities not open to those genres.
This book looks at one play, but offers a profound demonstration of the
rich variety of different kinds of analysis that narratology affords the
student of drama. The introduction provides a very useful tour d'horizon of
the question of narratology's relationship to drama, and of the ways in which
that question has been answered. After this solid theoretical foundation,
successive chapters consider different narratological approaches. Oedipus'
control of the presentation of events in the play is powerfully demonstrated
by analysis of his use of analeptic accounts of the past and proleptic
VI Foreword
accounts of the future; in a manner that other characters cannot match. His
life is focalised through a number of characters, but this blind and
apparently powerless old man's control of our and the characters' view of
the past grows as he increasingly exercises his narratorial authority to
present his past as he interprets it. In the same way, his move to heroic
status is expressed in great part by his vision, unavailable to others, of the
future course of events and of their significance.
Narration of off-stage events is an obvious area for narratorial analysis,
but the Oedipus at Colonus provides an intriguing example of an event-
the cavalry battle between the Athenian and Theban forces which is the
subject of a major choral narration and is contemporary with that narration,
but which the narrators cannot see and indeed do not in the end describe
in any actual detail. Markantonatos cleverly reveals how what is in narrato-
logical terms essentially an ellipsis of the battle-narrative in fact contributes
to our sense of the immense importance of this battle, through its presaging
of a future event of great importance to Athens: analepsis is again employed
to endow a mythical event with extra meaning.
In a similar fashion, the death of Oedipus is presented through a
plethora of different focalisations and, though it is finally described by the
Messenger, his narration has another ellipsis at its very heart. Only Oedipus
seems able to comprehend the meaning of his death: for us and the
characters, an aura of mystery remains. In this chapter, narratology goes
hand in hand with intertextuality, as the plot of Oedipus at Colonus is
examined through its relationship with Oedipus Tyrannus and Antigone,
and the coming events in the royal household are evoked and assessed
through the action of the play: for instance, the difference of opinion
between Antigone and Ismene is a mirror-text of the situation in Antigone.
A final powerful chapter considers the setting of the play at Colonus
and the way in which the description of Colonus is so constructed that it
evokes Athens itself and Eleusis with its rituals: various narrative devices
are used to give this site a significance well beyond what might have been
expected. Through differing focalisations and descriptions, Colonus is
made a place of considerable religious and political importance, and the
death of Oedipus is given further significance by its association with
intertexts of the Eleusinian Mysteries. 'Description' has often been seen
as the poor relation of narratology, even as an embarrassment, but in this
chapter its importance in the creation of the play's meaning is firmly
established.
Foreword VII
This rich and fascinating book thus takes a play of already acknowledged
complexity and finds in it, through narratology, further as yet unremarked
levels of signification and intricacy. It is narratology which lets Marka-
ntonatos explore the way the events on stage, which have a very short
temporal compass, are set against the many off-stage worlds, both past
and future. It is narration, in its many forms, which brings these worlds
before the spectators' and readers' eyes, and gives the stage-action its
cosmic significance.
A.M. Bowie,
The Queen's College, Oxford.
Acknowledgements
This book began life as a doctoral thesis at Oxford University in 1994.
Since then my initial views on the possibility for an application of
narratology to Greek tragedy have undergone considerable changes -
always for the better, I hope. This would never have happened without the
unfailing guidance and continuous encouragement of Dr. A. M. Bowie,
who took an immediate interest in my work and agreed to act as
supervisor of my doctoral thesis. Like another μυσταγωγός, he guided me
through the long and often frustrating process of putting my hazy ideas in
order and expressing myself clearly. If only I had been endowed with his
extraordinary attention to detail and his remarkable feeling for Greek! My
sole ambition is that the present book meets his rigorous scholarly
standards.
Through the years, I incurred several debts of gratitude from people at
Oxford and elsewhere. My text has been greatly improved by their
enlightening observations. I am especially grateful to Dr. D. Innes for her
unstinted support during my first year at Oxford as an M.St, student, the
late Dr. D. Fowler for readily responding to my narratological queries and
providing me with abundant bibliography to improve the thesis, Prof. P. J.
Parsons for his unforgettable tutorials and valuable advice, Prof. O. Taplin
for reading parts of my thesis and lending me his outstanding theatrical
expertise, Prof. P. E. Easterling for going through part of my text with
matchless acumen and advising me on several crucial points, Dr. C.
Pelling for reading everything again with great perceptiveness and learning,
Prof. Dr. H.-G. Nesselrath for making many helpful suggestions with his
usual insight and sensitivity, Dr. I. J. F. de Jong for her useful recommenda-
tions, and, last but not least, Dr. T. C. B. Rood, Dr. B. Goward and Dr. N.
J. Lowe for letting me see exciting unpublished work on narratology and
classical literature. Especially, the last has put me in his debt in offering
plenty of suggestions for the improvement of my narratological analysis.
Without his constructive criticism, my arguments would have been much
weaker. Needless to say, any errors remaining in the book are my
responsibility.
I am aware that many more people have taken the time to discuss
X Acknowledgements
aspects of my work or answer queries. I feel privileged to have such
friends as Michael Lipka, Abe Fawal, Brian Hardy and Cristina Neagu-
Costelo, who were particularly receptive to my approach. Also, I would
like to record my gratitude to the Faculty Board of Literae Humaniores,
who elected me to a generous three-year scholarship. On a personal note,
I owe to my wife, Mirella, far more than I could ever possibly say. She
has helped me enormously at every stage no less than in caring for our
newborn son. Finally, I am very aware that this study would never have
seen the light of day without the constant support of my parents, who
were always there for me in my hour of need. As I am true to the saying
that θεός μέγιστος τοις φρονοϋσιν oí γονής, the book is deservedly
dedicated to them with all my love.
A.M.
Athens
February 2002
