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Cited by 111Classical Antiquity StudiesTheatre and Performance StudiesClassical Studies and Philology

Seneca on the stage

Sutton, Dana F.·1986·BRILL eBooks
DOI 10.1163/9789004328310
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Abstract

In the absence of the stage directions employed by their modern equivalents, ancient playwrights were obliged to ''encode'' information into their texts that can be described as implicit stage directions. It is the presence of such information that permits modern ''production criticism,'' intended to determine how ancient plays were meant to be staged. Since the early nineteenth century, it has been debated whether Seneca's tragedies were or were not written for stage production. Seneca's dramatic texts contain material that looks precisely like the implicit stage directions found in all other ancient drama, and when his plays are subjected to production criticism, it emerges that they make sound dramaturgic sense. Also, Seneca avails himself of the same artificial and sometimes irrational dramatic conventions used by other ancient playwrights, a fact often ignored by those who argue that Seneca was only writing plays for reading or recitation. The internal evidence of the plays offers much to support, and little to contradict, the idea that his plays were written with the stage in mind.

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  • The outwards breathing of an animal is the power that produces qualities and quantities.

    “'Tensile movement' goes both outwards and inwards: the outwards breathing of, say, an animal is the power that producesor more literally 'brings to completion' (ἀποτελεστική)qualities and quantities, which we can perceive in one another: hence, we might say that Aristotle's bull is 'swollen with anger' when we perceive the bull's exhalation.39”

    From Cosmic Spiritualism among the Pythagoreans, Stoics, Jews and Early Christians (2019) · cites this paper as [39]

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Authors
Sutton, D. F.
Corresponding author
Sutton, Dana F.
Venue
BRILL eBooks
Publisher
BRILL
Published
1986-01-01
DOI
10.1163/9789004328310
OpenAlex
W1558701626
Cited by
111
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 30 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 27 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
FWCI
2.31
Type
book
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
BRILL eBooks (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Classical Antiquity Studies
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Visual Arts and Performing Arts › Theatre and Performance Studies
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Classical Studies and Philology
Keywords
Seneca, Roman tragedy, ancient drama, dramaturgy, theatrical conventions

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