| 050701 |
Read on Arrival |
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Richard P. Martin, Stanford University |
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Abstract: The poetics of traveling poets are
analyzed with the help of evidence from Greece (6thc
BCE to 6th c CE), West Africa, and Ireland. A detailed
explication of Aristophanes Birds 904-957 is used to
explore further the tropes used by bards and rules of
interaction with poeti vaganti. The Lives
of Homer tradition is shown to match up with
descriptions of cognate poetic performances (Greek and
other) in this regard. |
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| 040701 |
Golden Verses: Voice and Authority in the
Tablets |
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Richard P. Martin, Stanford University |
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Abstract: This paper attempts to read the
gold “Orphic” tablets found in tombs from
Thessaly to Sicily against the background of Homeric
epic. It introduces the notion of “speech
type-scene” and draws conclusions, from the
deployment of formulae and pragmatic situations, about
the “voice” one is supposed to hear behind
the tablet texts. It was originally delivered as a
paper at the Ohio State University conference Ritual
Texts for the Afterlife (April 2006), organized by
Fritz Graf and Sarah Iles-Johnston. |
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| 050503 |
The Voices of Jocasta |
|
Richard P. Martin, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: The poem contained in the Lille
Stesichorus papyrus presents several features that can
be usefully compared with aspects of characterization
and theme in the Oedipus Tyrannos of Sophocles.
If we assume that an Athenian audience in the later 5th
century knew the Stesichorean composition, the dramatic
choices made by Sophocles take on new meaning. This
paper is forthcoming in the proceedings of the
International Conference on Ancient Drama held at
Delphi, Greece (July 2002). |
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| 050502 |
Gnomes in Poems: Wisdom Performance on the
Athenian Stage |
|
Richard P. Martin, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: An ethnography-of
speaking-approach to proverb-use lets us explore the
deployment of this genre as part of personal
self-projection and of social life. Greek drama, by
presenting proverbs in the mouths of its staged
characters, makes use of the ordinary performance value
of this “genre of speaking” while
constructing a broader theatrical event. Characters can
be judged on the basis of their skill at proverb-use,
and important junctures in the plays can be marked by
the employment of gnômai. Resistance to
proverbs, and misuse of the genre (whether or not
intentional) further mark speakers. This paper will
appear in the Festschrift for John
Papademetriou. |
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| 020501 |
Ancient Theatre and Performance Culture |
|
Richard P. Martin, Stanford University |
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No longer available as a working paper. This is now
published as "Ancient Theatre and Performance Culture,"
pp. 36-54 in M. McDonald and J.M. Walton (eds.) The
Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Theature,
Cambridge University Press, 2007. |
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