Greek Tragedy and the Middle East

Abstract

Employing the idea of interculturality to study Middle Eastern adaptations of Greek tragedy from the turn of 20th century until the present day, this book first explores the earlier phase of the development of Greek classical reception in Middle Eastern theatre. It then moves to focus on modern Arabic, Persian and Turkish adaptations of Greek tragedy both in the early post-colonial and contemporary periods in the MENA and in Europe. Case by case, this book examines how the classical sources are reworked and adapted, as well as how they engage with interculturality, hybridisation and the circulation of aesthetics and models. At the same time, it explores the implications and consequences of expressing socio-political concerns through classical Greek sources. While Muslim thinkers and translators introduced Greek philosophy – in particular Aristotle’s Poetics – to the West in the Middle Ages, adaptations of Greek tragedies only appeared in the MENA region at the very beginning of the 20th century. For this reason, the development of Greek tragedy in the Middle East is difficult to disentangle from colonialism and cultural imperialism. Encompassing language differences and offering for the first time a broad approach on the Middle-Eastern reception of Greek tragedy, this book produces a renewed focus on a fascinating aspect of the classical tradition. While the Greek heritage has penetrated Muslim thought very early in time and the Arabs introduced Greek philosophy—and in particular Aristotle’s Poetics—to the West, Greek tragedy is not part of the cultural and theatrical heritage of Arab-Muslim societies. Indeed, the introduction of the tragedy in the Middle East is a result of European penetration in this region. This book maintains that the development of an interculturality in the Middle Eastern adaptations of the Greek tragedy is difficult to disentangle from a colonial situation and a cultural imperialism, but seeks to go beyond that observation. Starting with an exploration of the earlier phase of the development of Greek classical reception in Middle Eastern theatre in the 19th century, this study focuses then on modern Arabic, Persian, and Turkish adaptations of the Greek tragedy both in the early postcolonial period and in contemporary times, both in the MENA region and in Europe. From an aesthetic point of view, it examines how the classical sources are reworked and adapted, according to which strategies they are integrated and presented, and how they engage with interculturality, hybridization, and the circulation of aesthetics and models. Yet it deeply explores the political implications and consequences of expressing socio-political concerns through classical Greek sources. Encompassing language differences and offering for the first time a broad approach to the Middle Eastern reception of the Greek tragedy, this book produces a renewed focus on a fascinating aspect of the classical tradition.