Hellenic Common: Greek Drama and Cultural Cosmopolitanism in the Neoliberal Era (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)

__Hellenic Common__ argues that theatrical adaptations of Greek tragedy exemplify the functioning of a cosmopolitan cultural commonwealth. Analyzing plays by Femi Osofisan, Moira Buffini, Marina Carr, Colin Teevan, and Yael Farber, this book shows how contemporary adapters draw tragic and mythic material from a cultural common and remake those stories for modern audiences. Phillip Zapkin theorizes a political economy of adaptation, combining both a formal reading of adaptation as an aesthetic practice and a political reading of adaptation as a form of resistance. Drawing an ethical centre from Kwame Anthony Appiah’s work on cosmopolitanism and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s theory of the common, __Hellenic Common__ argues that Attic tragedy forms a cultural commonwealth from which dramatists the world over can rework, reimagine, and restage materials to envision aspirational new worlds through the arts. This study will be of great interest to students and scholars of drama, adaptation studies, literature, and neoliberalism. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Buying Piraeus, owning Greece A very brief history of neoliberalism McTheatre: Neoliberalism on stage Adaptation, theatre, and resistance to neoliberal hegemony The cultural commons Chapter summaries Conclusion 1. Adaptation: Shared cultural myths The field of adaptation The political economy of adaptation Why the Greeks in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries? Global Greeks? Adaptation’s cosmopolitan political potential Conclusion 2. Economic (neo)colonialism: Exploitation makes globalization go ‘round A global economy Economic anti-colonialism: Protest in Femi Osofisan’sWomen of Owu Art and culture as survival tools The god of profit: Nation building and global economics in Moira Buffini’s Welcome to Thebes Violence and disaster capitalism Politics of disavowal: Neoliberal rhetoric and results Conclusion 3. ...And their families: Neoliberal family and the dissolution of the social Family and the neoliberal paradox Competing models of family in Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats Contradictions to neoliberal ideals: Travellers and domestic labor Breaking down society, building society through theatre Conclusion 4. Korinthiazomai: Rewriting desire and perverse enjoyment The psychology of neoliberalism New plays from old fragments Commodified society: Sex, religion, and family Alcmaeon’s symptom Creon’s obsession God from the law Conclusion 5. Ubuntu: Building a common world Cosmopolitan ethics Molora and its classical intertexts Molora and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission African languages and performance forms The humane power of the Xhosa Chorus Conclusion Conclusion:Buying Greece: Or, you get what you pay for Theatre takes on culture Theatre takes on capitalism Index "Hellenic Common argues that theatrical adaptations of Greek tragedy exemplify the functioning of a cosmopolitan cultural commonwealth. Analyzing plays by Femi Osofisan, Moira Buffini, Marina Carr, Colin Teevan, and Yael Farber, this book shows how contemporary adapters draw tragic and mythic material from a cultural common and remake those stories for modern audiences. Phillip Zapkin theorizes a political economy of adaptation, combining both a formal reading of adaptation as an aesthetic practice and a political reading of adaptation as a form of resistance. Drawing an ethical centre from Kwame Anthony Appiah's work on cosmopolitanism and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's theory of the common, Sharing Hellas argues that Attic tragedy forms a cultural commonwealth from which dramatists the world over can rework, reimagine, and restage materials to envision aspirational new worlds through the arts. This study will be of great interest to students and scholars of drama, adaptation studies, literature and neoliberalism"-- Provided by publisher