Chapter One. Introduction: Gendered Space In Greek Tragedy As Communication

Abstract

This book is a contribution to an ongoing inquiry concerning the representation of gender in Greek tragedy through gendered speech. Its approach to gendered speech in Greek tragedy is to look at specific modes of communication that Euripides either reserves for or associates with women, such as Creusa's song. Other modes include intimate conversations, silences, and apologies. As regards song, there are metrical conventions that divide tragedy into moments of spoken iambic trimeter, moments of sung lyric meter, and moments of some- thing in-between. The book argues that Euripides does construct his female characters to sound like women, and that this is effected not only by these modes of communication, but also by an explicit recognition of Athenian social conventions which make these modes appropriate.Keywords: Euripides; gender; Greek Tragedy; woman