Hardwick, Lorna
(2005).
| URL: | http://www.artsafrica.org/archive/documents/docu-0... |
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| Google Scholar: | Look up in Google Scholar |
Abstract
This paper reflects on the intermingling of the comic and the tragic genres and introduces the concept of the para-tragic, often interchangeable with the notion of parody. Concentrating on three recent productions in the UK of Euripides’ tragedy Hecuba she investigates the parody of institutions and social conventions of the play. The Donmar production exposed the perversion of Xenia/ the tradition of hospitality/when a discussion between Polymester and Hecuba about murder and theft was set in the social rituals of a beach picnic, complete with tea and sandwiches. A second parodic critique was offered by the RSC foregrounding the democratic debate and decision making. The mock trial by Agamemnon at the end of the tragedy showed a democracy corrupted by the very people who proclaimed its values. Critics reacted violent on both interventions.
| Item Type: | Journal Article |
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| Copyright Holders: | 2005 The Author |
| Extra Information: | The Performance of the Comic in Arabic Theatre : Cultural Heritage, Western Models and Postcolonial Hybridity
by Mieke Kolk (editor) and Freddy Decreus (co-editor) Proceedings of the International Conference on: THE COMIC CONDITION AS A PLAY WITH INCONGRUITIES Cultural Varieties in Arabic and Western Theatre Tetouan, Morocco, April 27-30, 2005 |
| Academic Unit/Department: | Arts > Classical Studies |
| Related URLs: | |
| Item ID: | 23895 |
| Depositing User: | Carol Gillespie |
| Date Deposited: | 06 May 2011 09:09 |
| Last Modified: | 06 May 2011 09:09 |
| URI: | http://oro.open.ac.uk/id/eprint/23895 |
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