TY - BOOK AU - Wise,Jennifer TI - Dionysus Writes: The Invention of Theatre in Ancient Greece SN - 9780801486937 AV - PA3201 .W57 1998eb U1 - 792/.0938 22 PY - 2019///] CY - Ithaca, NY : PB - Cornell University Press, KW - Greek drama KW - History and criticism KW - Theory, etc KW - Invention (Rhetoric) KW - History KW - To 1500 KW - Literacy KW - Greece KW - Literary form KW - Theater KW - To 500 KW - Written communication KW - Ancient History & Classical Studies KW - Performing Arts & Drama KW - HISTORY / Ancient / Greece KW - bisacsh N1 - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Acknowledgments --; Introduction: The Theoretical Problem --; Chapter 1: The ABCs Of Acting --; Chapter 2: The Student Body --; Chapter 3: Courtroom Dramas --; Chapter 4: Economies Of Inscription --; Conclusion: Theatre And Technology --; Bibliography --; Index; restricted access; Issued also in print N2 - What is the nature of theatre's uneasy alliance with literature? Should theatre be viewed as a preliterate, ritualistic phenomenon that can only be compromised by writing? Or should theatre be grouped with other literary arts as essentially'textual,'with even physical performance subsumed under the aegis of textuality? Jennifer Wise, a theatre historian and drama theorist who is also an actor, director, and designer, responds with a challenging and convincing reconstruction of the historical context from which Western theatre first emerged.Wise believes that a comparison of the performance style of oral epic with that of drama as it emerged in sixth-century Greece shows the extent to which theatre was influenced by literate activities relatively new to the ancient world. These activities, foreign to Homer yet familiar to Aeschylus and his contemporaries, included the use of the alphabet, the teaching of texts in schools, the public inscription of laws, the sending and receiving of letters, the exchange of city coinage, and the making of lists. Having changed the way cultural material was processed and transmitted, the technology of writing also led to innovations in the way stories were told, and Wise contends that theatre was the result. However, the art of drama appeared in ancient Greece not only as a beneficiary of literacy but also in defiance of any tendency to see textuality as an end in itself UR - https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501744945 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781501744945 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9781501744945/original ER -