Tragedy has been reborn many times since antiquity. Seventeenth-century French playwrights composed tragedies marked by neoclassical aesthetics and the divine-right absolutism of the Grand Siècle. But their works also speak to the modern imagination, inspiring reactions from Barthes, Derrida, and Foucault; adaptations and reworkings by Césaire and Kushner; and new productions by francophone and anglophone directors. This volume addresses both the history of French neoclassical tragedy--its audiences, performance practice, and development as a genre--and the ideas these works raise, such as necessity, free will, desire, power, and moral behavior in the face of limited choices. Essays demonstrate ways to teach the plays through a variety of lenses, such as performance, spectatorship, aesthetics, rhetoric, and affect. The book also explores postcolonial engagement, by writers and directors both in and outside France, with these works.

This introductory study presents Phèdre as an example of the culmination of French classical tragedy--taking into consideration the play's historical, literary and theatrical context, its relationship to other tragedies of Racine, and its influence on later European literature.

Strongly influenced by Classical drama, Jean Racine (1639-99) broke away from the grandiose theatricality of baroque drama to create works of intense psychological realism, with characters manipulated by cruel and vengeful gods. Iphigenia depicts a princess's absolute submission to her father's will, despite his determination to sacrifice her to gain divine favour before going to war. Described by Voltaire as 'the masterpiece of the human mind', Phaedra shows a woman's struggle to overcome her overwhelming passion for her stepson - an obsession that brings destruction to a noble family. And Athaliah portrays a ruthless pagan queen, who defies Jehovah in her desperate attempt to keep the throne of Jerusalem from its legitimate heir.

The Trojan War occurred more than 3,000 years ago. Since then, starting with Homer's epics, people have been writing, painting, sculpting and creating music about this event and its participants. This book starts with an overview of the Bronze Age when the Trojan War occurred, and then follows a selection of the major literature about this war from Homer down through the ages and on to the Internet. Each retelling of the Troy story is discussed in its historical context and includes a synopsis of the story itself. The ways of telling the story change over time. The main versions considered include Homer's Iliad and Odyssey; a selection of Classical Greek Dramas (especially Iphigenia at Aulis); Virgil's Aeneid; Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde; Guido delle Colonne's History of the Destruction of Troy; Racine's Iphigenia (at Aulis); Goethe's Iphigenia in Tauris; Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida; Joyce's Ulysses; and two feminist Troy novels, Sheri Tepper's The Gate to Women's Country and Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Firebrand. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Beginning with 1953, entries for Motion pictures and filmstrips, Music and phonorecords form separate parts of the Library of Congress catalogue. Entries for Maps and atlases were issued separately 1953-1955.