COM507-European Tragedy-2024/25

In this folder you'll find five clips, which you should watch in order. The related slides are provided separately, for convenience, in the Week 1 area.

A brief glossary that you may find useful. It's based on the Greek terms, which you're likely to come across in your secondary reading.

These terms are relevant to Greek tragedy in general - you'll probably come across at least some of them in your secondary reading.

The Monday seminar takes the form of an inquiry hearing, set up to investigate the events and issues that led to the outcomes represented in the play. One group will act as the inquiry panel; others will represent different figures in the play. This page sets out the briefs for each group.

A BBC4 broadcast of a 2015 stage performance of Antigone, in Anne Carson's translation. The production involves the illustrious Dutch director Ivo van Hove, and the very well-known actress Juliette Binoche as Antigone. It's worth reflecting on what Binoche brings to the role.

Click here to access the video via the Box of Broadcasts (BoB), a database available to UK educational institutions. You'll be prompted to login via Queen Mary, and will be sent a verification email if it's your first visit to BoB.

Quotations on this page are taken from the introduction to Sophocles, Antigone, ed. Mark Griffith (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). Griffith typically abbreviates various names: the author's name becomes 'S.' the play's title is 'Ant.', etc. He also transliterates Greek names in ways that reflect modern scholarly practice rather than traditional anglicized forms: hence he refers to 'Kreon', 'Oidipous', and so on. You'll soon get used to this. Some of his comments are very useful not only for an understanding of Antigone, but also in relation to your first assignment. For example, he shows how S. made major changes to the story of Ant. [see, this abbreviation habit is catching] in the interests of arousing pity and fear. You may find this useful when preparing your plot summary and reflective commentary, in showing how inventively you can treat your source material.

This is the second session of the inquiry into what led to the outcomes represented in Antigone. One group will act as the inquiry panel; others will each represent a different major thinker, who has been called as an expert witness. This page sets out the briefs for each group.

Some important quotations from Tragic Ways of Killing A Woman by Nicole Loraux, a leading scholar of ancient Greece. Very relevant to both Antigone and Phaedra.

This page sets out the briefs for each group.

This page sets out the briefs for each group.

The production is in Spanish, and subtitles aren't available, but you may find it useful as an example of performance.

In case it's useful to anyone, here's a link to a freely available online version of the Spanish text. There's a separate page for each Act.

Mentimeter posts will be uploaded after the session...

...and here they are