Objects as Actors
Props and the Poetics of Performance in Greek Tragedy
"Objects as Actors" charts a new approach to Greek tragedy based on an obvious, yet often overlooked, fact: Greek tragedy was meant to be performed. As plays, the works were incomplete without physical items in the form of theatrical props. In this book, Melissa Mueller ingeniously demonstrates the importance of objects in the staging and reception of Athenian tragedy. As Mueller shows, props like weapons, textiles, and even letters were uniquely positioned to capitalize on both the verbal and the material and were fully integrated into a play's action. They could provoke surprising plot turns, elicit bold viewer reactions, and provide some of tragedy's most thrilling moments. Whether the sword of Sophocles's Ajax, the tapestry in Aeschylus's Agamemnon, or the tablet of Euripides's Hippolytus, props demanded attention as a means of uniting – or disrupting – time, space, and genre. Insightful and original, "Objects as Actors" offers a fresh perspective on the central tragic texts – and encourages us to rethink ancient theater as a whole.
About the Author
Melissa Mueller is associate professor of classics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has published widely on the topics of tragedy and Homer.
Reviews
"'Objects as Actors' is an elegantly written and original exploration of the function and meaning of props on the Attic stage. The premise, that objects participate in a network of social relations and as such have the potential to exert agency, affords a unique perspective on tragic drama and sheds new light on old debates. Wide ranging and ambitious, 'Objects as Actors' puts the field of classics into dialogue with many other disciplines and makes a significant contribution to current debates among anthropologists, historians, and literary critics about the cultural and social life of things" – Laura McClure, University of Wisconsin-Madison
"Original, provocative, thoroughly researched, and well written, 'Objects as Actors' is the first book-length discussion of tragic props, and it deals with many of the most important uses of them in the context of whole plays. Mueller makes deft use of anthropological and theater theory to produce an innovative work on a cutting-edge topic. This is an important book" – Helene P. Foley, Barnard College, Columbia University
"'Objects as Actors' is a must-read for anyone interested in the mysterious and uncanny powers of theater, whether Greek tragedy or the latest modern productions. Mueller has succeeded in combining meticulous philological analysis of the handling of props by the major classical playwrights with groundbreaking theory concerning agency, cognition, materialist philosophy, symbolic economies, politics, and sociology. The result is a truly illuminating, densely packed book offering fresh discoveries about some of our oldest literature. From the sword of Ajax to the urn of Electra, from stage letters to tokens of recognition, Mueller's laser-like probing continually reveals strange and moving aspects of the visual experience of Athenian drama" – Richard Martin, Stanford University
