Introduction: From the Ground Up

Abstract

Abstract The Greek –– and above all, the Attic –– theatre is probably the single most intensively studied institution from the ancient world. And, over the last thirty years in particular, research into Classical drama as an institution of the city-state has enjoyed a spectacular regeneration and efflorescence through the application of a range of fruitful new approaches. The once largely text centred study of traditional philology and New Criticism has given way to a series of new methodologies that seek to understand dramatic texts within their many original ancient contexts. From the late 1970s performance-analysis and reconstruction pioneered by Oliver Taplin led the way, teaching us to see Classical tragedy and comedy as works for the stage rather than the study, designed for a very real live performance under the alien conditions and conventions of ancient Greek open-air, communal, religious theatre. In the 1980s and beyond the paradigm shifted to more broadly political and social contexts, largely under the influence of the so-called ‘Paris School’ of Vernant and Vidal-Naquet, with its many successors.