Language, Sexuality, Narrative: The Oresteia

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This book is concerned with the complexity and difficulty of reading the Oresteia. It is not a traditional commentary, although it is often concerned with problems of interpretation and language, nor is it simply what is generally understood by a literary study, although it often discusses the wider themes of the narrative. It is a close reading of the text concentrating on the developing meanings of words within the structuring of the play. In particular, Simon Goldhill focuses on the text's interests in language and its control, in sexuality and sexual difference, and in the progression and description of events. Dr Goldhill links a sound philological knowledge with material drawn widely from modern literary theory and anthropological studies. The result is a challenging and provocative book, which offers for the serious student of Greek drama an exciting range of insights into one of the most important texts of the ancient world.
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328 pages, Paperback

First published November 15,1984

About the author

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Simon David Goldhil is Professor in Greek literature and culture and fellow and Director of Studies in Classics at King's College, Cambridge. He was previously Director of Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge, succeeding Mary Jacobus in October 2011. He is best known for his work on Greek tragedy.
In 2009, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2010, he was appointed as the John Harvard Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences at Cambridge, a research position held concurrently with his chair in Greek.
In 2016, he became a fellow of the British Academy. He is a member of the Council of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Board of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes, and is President of the European Institutes for Advanced Study (NetIAS).
Goldhill is a well-known lecturer and broadcaster and has appeared on television and radio in England, Australia, the United States and Canada. His books have been translated into ten languages, and he has been profiled by newspapers in Brazil, Australia and the Netherlands.


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April 1,2025
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I saw many reviews of this book that characterized the text as "dense" not "reader friendly'. I immediately mail ordered the book, feeling I could move past this so-called unfriendly zone, and learn a lot. Boy was I wrong.

Perhas it's unfair to put this in my "Read" bookshelf, since I merely skimmed it. Every quotation (the text is approx. 1/2 quotes) is in ancient greek. I cannot read in any other language, especially one that uses another alphabet. I still wonder why none of those reader reviews mentions this greek business. Perhaps they felt only a greek scholar would want to pick this up? I don't know.

To be perfectly fair, I'm sure the book is full of fabulous information. In fact I'm reading another of the author's titles, and it's excellent, informative and entertaining. But I refuse to learn a dead form of greek.
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