Anna Uhlig - Böcker

This book offers a series of studies of the idea and practice of reperformance as it affects ancient lyric poetry and drama. Special attention is paid to the range of phenomena which fall under the heading 'reperformance', to how poets use both the reality and the 'imaginary' of reperformance to create a deep temporal sense in their work and to how audiences use their knowledge of reperformance conditions to interpret what they see and hear. The studies range in scope from Pindar and fifth-century tragedy and comedy to the choral performances and reconstructions of the Imperial Age. All chapters are informed by recent developments in performance studies, and all Greek and Latin is translated.

What would Pindar and Aeschylus have talked about had they met at some point during their overlapping poetic careers? How do we map the space shared by these two fifth-century choral poets? In the first book-length comparative study of Pindar and Aeschylus in over six decades, Anna S. Uhlig pushes back against the prevailing tendency to privilege interpretive frames that highlight the differences in their works. Instead, she adopts a more inclusive category of choral performance, one in which both poets are shown to be grappling to understand how the vivid here and now of their compositions are in fact a reenactment of voices and bodies from elsewhere. Pairing close readings of the ancient texts with insights from modern performance studies, Uhlig offers a novel perspective on the 'song culture' of early fifth-century BC Greece.