Tragic Drama: The Poetics of Death: Euripides' Alcestis

We will closely read Euripides' Alcestis in Ancient Greek. In this play, a man tries to escape death by asking his wife to die in his place. The story that follows is unlike that of any other surviving Greek tragedy - in fact, some scholars question whether it should be called a tragedy at all. As we read, we will ask how this drama maps the relationship between gender, poetry, and death, with special interest in the play's reception by feminist readers, its adaptation on the global stage, and the fraught problem of genre. Assessments will include translation, interpretive exercises, and a final project.