Gender and the City in Euripides' Political Plays

This text provides a study of Euripides' so-called political plays - Children of Herakles and Suppliant Women . Still disdained as the anomalously patriotic or propagandistic works of a playwright elsewhere famous for his subversive, ironic artistic ethos, the two works in question, notorious for their uncomfortable juxtaposition of political speeches and scenes of extreme feminine emotion, continue to be dismissed by scholars of tragedy as artistic failures unworthy of the author of Medea , Hippolytus and Bacchae This study makes use of insights into classical Greek conceptions of gender (in real life and on stage) and Athenian notions of civic identity to demonstrate that the political plays are, in fact, intellectually subtle and structurally coherent exercises in political theorizing - works that use complex interactions between female and male characters to explore the advantages, and costs, of being a member of the polis.

Review:

... a highly rewarding book ... a persuasive examination not only of the chosen plays but also of the kind of demanding political thinking that tragedy could do. American Journal of Philology ... a good book which marks an important stage in the rehabilitation of what Mendelsohn rightly (in my view) regards as plays 'by a major dramatist at the height of his powers'. JACT Review ... very stimulating and enjoyable book. It is a splendid example of post-modern criticism, mingling a flexible and persuausive use of theory with a vigilant and sensitive literary response. JACT Review Daniel Mendelsohn provides a masterful and compelling rereading of both plays and in the process not only challenges standard assessments of their value but also demonstrates the centrality of gender for structuring their political debates. Bryn Mawr Classical Review [A] detailed, profound, and revealing analysis of the two 'political' plays ... These few examples are all that can be cited here of the strength of the evidence he cites to support his theses and the precision of his critical language; to appreciate the full effect, the reader must go to the book. Suffice it to say that in his sensitive analysis of these and other aspects of the two plays' structure and content he has rescued them from the critical limbo to which so many scholars had consigned them ... The somewhat abstract psychological analysis Mendelsohn proposes here may sound complex but it emerges convincingly from a close reading of the plays ... The review of his book, though selective and inadequate, is enough to establish the fact that his attempt is a brilliant success. Bernard Knox, The New York Review of Books