Beschreibung:

155 S.; Frontispiz; 22 cm. Originalleinenband.

Bemerkung:

Sehr gutes Ex. - Englisch. // INHALT : About the Author --- Preface --- Editions and Abbreviations --- Chronology --- Chapter One --- Sophocles and Athens --- Chapter Two --- Against Time and Chance: Ajax --- Chapter Three --- A Deceptive World: Women of Track is --- Chapter Four --- The Causes of Ruin: Antigone --- Chapter Five --- A Hidden God: Oedipus the King --- Chapter Six --- Word and Deed: Electra --- Chapter Seven --- A Desert Island: Philoctetes --- Chapter Eight --- Time Defeated: Oedipus at Colonus --- Chapter Nine --- The Sophoclean Achievement --- Notes and References --- Selected Bibliography --- Index. // Sophocles is firmly established among the greatest authors of the Western tradition, and his work is the subject of a vast secondary literature. This exalted place, however, does not make him easy for the general reader. He composed in a language which very few people now study, and in a culture which, although it is in so many ways the direct ancestor of our own, is in some respects profoundly different. His great central characters and their dilemmas can still speak directly to us; Oedipus, Antigone, and Electra need no critical help to move a reader or an audience. But the sophistication, subtlety, and difficulty of his work are not so immediately accessible, and much of the secondary literature is either directed at specialists or concerned with particular aspects of Sophocles' art. This book has two goals. First, I have tried to offer general readers an idea of the background of Sophocles' works, especially their literary predecessors-Homer, the Epic Cycle, and Aeschylus-and certain aspects of Greek religion. Second, I have discussed issues of interpretation, with emphasis on the vision of the world which emerges from the Sophoclean plays. This is not an attempt to extract a "message" or a philosophy from the plays, but to examine the issues the dramas raise and how meaning arises from what the characters say, do, and suffer. I have tried to mention, at least, a wide range of issues and kinds of interpretation, but I have given special attention to the relationship between gods and human beings in Sophocles. Much of the action in Sophocles is performed by gods and mortals together. This aspect of Sophoclean drama is especially difficult for modern readers to appreciate, but it contributes a great deal to the richness and ambiguity of the plays. ? (Vorwort) ISBN 0805765786