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- Title
The Book as Performance: Theater, Written Works, and Textual Repositories in Ancient Greece.
- Authors
Senseney, John; Finn, Megan
- Abstract
This study focuses on the book's incipient Greek connection with performance and considers the role of performance in the textual repositories of the Hellenistic period. Against the Archaic and Classical background of writing as a recording of performed works (oral poetry, technical achievements, lectures, etc.), we address the inherent nature of the book as a vehicle for performance. In this regard, we isolate the literary development of Athenian drama for theoria the witnessing of rituals of sacralized spectacle in the theater as a model for Plato's invention of "theory" through books as dialoguedriven performances. We argue that Plato's appropriation of the vernacular and structure of theater situated the communal, listening audiences of his books, engendering their institutionalized participation through the collection and oral reading of books within ancient repositories.
- Subjects
GREECE; HISTORY of the book; HELLENISM; HELLENISTIC Greek literature; THEORIA (The Greek word); HISTORY of libraries; CLASSICAL antiquities
- Publication
International Journal of the Book, 2010, Vol 7, Issue 3, p83
- ISSN
1447-9516
- Publication type
Article