A bold reconception of ancient Greek drama by one of the most brilliant and original classical scholars of his generation

When John Winkler died in 1990, he left an unpublished manuscript containing a highly original interpretation of the development and meaning of ancient Greek drama. Rehearsals of Manhood makes this groundbreaking work available for the first time, presenting an entirely novel picture of Greek tragedy and a vivid portrait of the cultural poetics of Athenian manhood.

Ancient Athens was a military conclave as well as an urban capital, and male citizens were expected to embody the ideal of the Athenian citizen-soldier. Winkler understands Attic drama as a secular manhood ritual, a collaborative aesthetic and civic enterprise focused on the initiation of boys into manhood and the training, testing, and representation of young male warriors. Past efforts to discover the origins and development of Greek tragedy have largely treated drama as a literary genre, isolating it from other Athenian social practices. Winkler returns Greek tragedy to its social context, showing how it was one among many forms of display and performance cultivated by elite males in ancient Greece.

The final work of a celebrated classical scholar, Rehearsals of Manhood highlights the civic function of the dramatic festivals at classical Athens as occasions for the examination and representation of boys on the verge of manhood, and offers a fresh explanation of how dramatic performance fit into the social life and gender politics of the Athenian state.

About the Author
John J. Winkler (1943-1990) was professor of classics at Stanford University. His books include The Constraints of Desire: The Anthropology of Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece and Auctor & Actor: A Narratological Reading of Apuleius's "The Golden Ass."

Reviews
"[Rehearsals of Manhood] is a pleasure to read and will be of interest to all students of Classical Athens and of gender in the ancient world. Winkler's writing is extremely lucid and engaging."---Sam McChesney, The European Legacy



Book Information
ISBN 9780691206486
Author David M. Halperin
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press