1st Edition
Theatrocracy Greek Drama, Cognition, and the Imperative for Theatre
Acknowledgements
Introduction: theatre as mimetic mind
Chapter 1 – Muthos: probability and prediction
Chapter 2 – Opsis: the embodied view
Chapter 3 – Ethos: the character of catharsis
Chapter 4 – Dianoia: intention in action
Chapter 5 – Melos: music and the mind
Chapter 6 – Lexis: somatosensory words
Chapter 7 – Metabasis: dissociation and democracy
Index
Biography
Peter Meineck is Professor of Classics in the Modern World at New York University, USA. He founded Aquila Theatre in 1991 and has since produced and directed more than 50 professional classical theatre works. He has also directed several National Endowment for the Humanities classics-based public programs, including the Chairman’s Special Award-winning Ancient Greeks/Modern Lives and The Warrior Chorus national veteran’s program. He has written widely on ancient theatre and its reception, and has published several translations of Greek drama.
This is an exhilarating read, a feast of ideas for those with an interest in the cognitive and emotional power of Greek drama. Peter Meineck uses his knowledge as an academic in Classics, his experience as a theatre practitioner and recent research into the cognitive sciences to rethink Aristotle’s Poetics with an eye to the experience of Greek drama in performance.
It is only appropriate that a book grounded in cognitive theory, cultural neuroscience and psychology should change the way you think and feel about Greek drama. Peter Meineck's book succeeds on both accounts.
As a researcher it has changed the way I think about the emotional and cognitive experience of Greek tragedy in ancient and modern performances; as a lecturer it will influence the way I teach Greek drama to my students in years to come.
- Sarah Miles, Durham University, UK
