Theater Criticism

Theater Criticism Theater Criticism When examining plays from classical antiquity from a feminist perspective , it is sometimes useful to forego a catalog of specific gender-based themes or specific portrayals of genders or gender roles within the plays themselves . Instead , a focus on the essential thematic under-tones of individual plays to determine the gender-based , cultural assumptions , or root belief systems which gave rise to the ultimate expression of gender identity in the plays an lead to a better understanding of how issues of gender informed cultural identities in ancient times p

Two famous plays from classical Greek literature , Euripides ' The Trojan Women , and Aristophanes ' Lysistrata offer ideal opportunities to approach ancient literature form a feminist critical perspective with the aim of determining how gender identities influenced cultural beliefs and evolutions in Greek society and also examine the profound role that literature played in shaping our challenging cultural ideas and beliefs in ancient Greek society

In The Trojan Women , gender specific themes are indicated by the play 's immediate action , setting , and conflicts "women 's voices resound in the stillness that follows the noise of battle . Euripides transfers the focus from the epic siege of Troy to the tragedy of its sack " and in doing so forwards the thematic idea that the aftermath of war is womens tragedy . The play examines how "A woman 's wartime experience of rape deracination , and concubinage can , like a man 's death in battle , provide a locus of articulate suffering the play also attempts to indict the practice of warfare through a visualization of its ultimate consequences to social (Cooper , Munich , and Squier 27 . Where The Trojan Women seeks to examine the implications of warfare on a human level , it finds root expression in the experiences of women thereby extending the idea that it is womens ' experience which defines social and also , it is womens ' experience to provide a socially recognized grieving process for the perils and ravages of war . While grief is "not a weapon of war " it does provide those without other recourse (namely women ) to impress on society their experience of war and grief "is often the grief of mothers , like that of Hecuba and Andromache in The Trojan Women " and therefore a deeply necessary social function is assigned by Euripides ' portrayal to a gender specific sub-set of society : women (Loraux 13

It is not too great of a leap to connect the connection of grieving and the aftermath of a lost-war to the suffering of women in Euripides play it is equally possible to make the case that Euripides means to connect women to defeat , specifically , and to in some ways define defeat as the "enforced feminization " of a society . The posture of defeat is the "feminized stance of those for whom defeat means not only dishonor but destruction . Euripides takes the Trojans ' perspective to challenge the xenophobia and androcentrism he locates at the heart of war " but this thematic assertion also equates women , as a gender , with defeat and humiliation...