Product Description

A reissue of this seminal study which was revolutionary in drawing out the significance of stage action in Greek tragedy at a time when plays were often read purely as texts, rather than understood as performances.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #103807 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

Review
'A reissue of Greek Tragedy in Action couldn't be more timely: here is a book that championed new trends in the study of Greek drama, offering fresh readings of old texts and above all a dynamic sense of theatre. Oliver Taplin's viewpoint has proved to be both prophetic and influential.' - Professor Pat Easterling, University of Cambridge

From the Back Cover

Oliver Taplin's seminal study was revolutionary in drawing o Professor Taplin explores nine plays, including Aeschylus' agamemnon and Sophocles' Oedipus the King. The details of theatrical techniques and stage directions, used by playwrights to highlight key moments, are drawn out and related to the meaning of each play as a whole. With extensive translated quotations, the essential unity of action and speech in Greek tragedy is demonstrated.
Now firmly established as a classic text, Greek Tragedy in Action is even more relevant today, when performances of Greek tragedies and plays inspired by them have had such an extraordinary revival around the world.

Classics 2005 catalogue copy:

Firmly established as a classic text, Greek Tragedy in Action explores nine plays and examines the details of theatrical techniques and stage directions and how they relate to the meaning of each play as a whole.

Customer Reviews

This book is as revolutionary as it is comprhensive..
Greek Tragedy in Action is one of those books that fills that all important gray area of introducing the novice and informing the expert. Whether you have a background in the genre or not you will find that Taplin has written an unobtrusive book that refuses to patronise the reader at any cost. His easy-to-use layout of the book (he goes through several plays by each of the great tragedians thematically) allows easy access to tragedy whether you want to focus on one specific play or an overview of it. It now only remails to be said that this book is a classic. It has revolutionised world of Greek tragedy, not by looking at the plays as spripts on a page but appreciating their all-to-often ignored theatrical nature. This book does far more than comprehensively review the field, it drags it out of the academics' book cases and appreciates the vivid, living, and exciting nature of Greek tragedy.