‘Possessing an unbridled tongue’: frank speech and speaking back in Euripides’ Orestes

Barker, Elton (2011). ‘Possessing an unbridled tongue’: frank speech and speaking back in Euripides’ Orestes. In: Carter, David ed. Why Athens? A Reappraisal of Tragic Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 145–162.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199562329.003.0008

URL: http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199562329.d...

Abstract

This chapter reassesses how tragedy is political: rather than focussing only on tragedy’s subject matter and the extent of its political or democratic referentiality, it draws attention to the language and form used, and the process through which an audience are invited to go by virtue of a play’s discourse and structure. Taking Euripides's Orestes as a case study, it examines instances of frank speech in conjuncture with the play’s formal structure in order to bring out Euripides’ thematisation of dissent and assess the repercussions that follow for thinking about tragedy’s politics more generally.

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