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OverviewDemanding Witness investigates how the trauma of female characters is represented and received in four Greek tragedies about homecoming: Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Sophocles' Women of Trachis, and Euripides' Heracles and Helen. Through discussions of modern trauma concepts alongside historical and literary analyses of these plays, Erika L. Weiberg examines how and why female characters' expressions of psychological pain are hotly contested, silenced, and suppressed by other characters and sometimes by the plot of the play itself. Tragic representations of female noncombatants' trauma after war expose the ripple effects of violence that wars create, even for individuals and communities distant from the fighting. At the same time, these characters' expressions of trauma also create a conflict of witnessing for other characters and the audience. By shifting focus to the returning hero's wife and the women he enslaves, Weiberg calls attention to the detrimental effects of structural and chronic forms of trauma in addition to trauma caused by discrete, catastrophic events. Weiberg argues that recognizing women's trauma in these tragedies requires questioning how Greek society was organized through hierarchies that privilege the hero's story of trauma and recovery to the exclusion of other types of stories and experiences. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Erika L. Weiberg (Assistant Professor of Classical Studies and Theater Studies, Assistant Professor of Classical Studies and Theater Studies, Duke University)Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc Dimensions: Width: 22.90cm , Height: 3.30cm , Length: 16.50cm Weight: 0.476kg ISBN: 9780197747322ISBN 10: 0197747329 Pages: 240 Publication Date: 19 June 2024 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: To order ![]() Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us. Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: Beyond the Trauma Hero Chapter One: Moral Injury in Aeschylus' Agamemnon Chapter Two: Insidious Trauma in Sophocles' Women of Trachis Chapter Three: Ambiguous Loss and Euripides' Heracles Chapter Four: Euripides' Helen and the Trauma of Survival Conclusion: Whose Trauma Matters? Bibliography IndexReviewsFull of insightful readings, this book makes you read ancient tragedy with greater sensitivity. Rather than focusing on the male hero, it breaks new ground by discussing the experience of those around the combatting hero, analyzing trauma from the perspective of those who witness trauma. Weiberg generates new theoretical approaches in a way that ingeniously draws them from the Greek text. * Andromache Karanika, University of California, Irvine * Demanding Witness brings together trauma studies and feminist theory to demonstrate how the effects of women's wounds ripple outwards, shaping the plot, stagecraft, and emotional landscapes of the tragedies considered. Centering noncombatants' experiences of war, Erika Weiberg's luminously written book offers a timely and essential new perspective on Greek tragedy as both literary genre and cultural intervention. * Melissa Mueller, University of Massachusetts Amherst * Author InformationErika L. Weiberg is Assistant Professor of Classical Studies and Theater Studies at Duke University. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |