UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON PhD THESIS NARRATIVE STRATEGIES: COMMUNICATION IN THE PLAYS OF AESCHYLUS AND SOPHOCLES BARBARA LOUISE COWARD B!BL LONDON ProQuest Number: 10045693 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest 10045693 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT This thesis explores narrative theories and their application to ancient tragedy. It is divided into three sections: SECTION I argues that it is valid to apply narrative theory to drama. It then questions the view that narrative and drama should be understood as polarised modes of communication ("showing" versus "telling", in twentieth century terms). It argues for intrinsic advantages in message narrative. All narratives in tragic rhesis are then divided into two temporal categories (1) short- range narratives, including the "messenger speech" and (2) longer range narratives of portent, prophecy, dream and curse (PPDCs). Within the episodes of tragedy, a suspenseful structure is often built up by a juxtaposition of (1) and (2). SECTION II: AESCHYLUS' surviving work is fluid in structure. However, he shows a tendency to create suspense by the build-up of deliberate delays and deceits together with an ambiguous dream or prophecy. These narrative strategies culminate in a central "programmatic" scene in which prophetic narratives are delivered and the structure of the whole work revealed. Anagnorisis often occurs out of these scenes. A discussion of Persae 249-622 follows, then the Shield scene from Septem. the Cassandra scene from Agamemnon and the lo scene from Prometheus Bound are taken as examples of central narrative scenes. Two short narratives from Septem and Supplices are discussed. SECTION III: SOPHOCLES' narratives seem as much concerned to cheat expectation as to fulfil it. Doles is an important concept in the ancient world which also describes the slippery condition of narrative. Greimas' actantial theory is brought to bear on Sophocles' doloi, particularly in Ajax. Sophocles deviates from traditional myth by introducing false narratives and creating "narrative loops". These extensions, observed in Ajax. Trach. and Phil., subvert expectation and explore new areas. The manifold doloi of Electra are analysed. CONTENTS SECTION ONE: NARRATIVE THEORY AND TRAGEDY CHAPTER 1: NARRATIVE AND DRAMA 1 1.1 Can narrative theory be applied to drama? 1 1.2 Tragedy as "narrative" 5 1.3 Tragedy as communication 7 1.4 Narrative versus action, or telling versus showing 9 CHAPTER 2: NARRATIVE TIME IN TRAGEDY 17 2.1.1 Narratives of recent or immediate past: messenger speeches 19 2.1.2 Simultaneous presentation of events 25 2.2 Long range analeptic or proleptic narratives: PPDCs, closure 27 2.3 PPDCs in combination with message narrative 30 2.4 PPDCs and closure 31 SECTION TWO: NARRATIVE IN AESCHYLUS CHAPTER THREE: NARRATIVE SHAPING 33 3.1 General outlines 33 3.2 Scale, openings, focalisation, suspense and emotion 36 3.3 Typical progression 42 3.4 Prophecies and dreams in hermeneutic structure, persuasion, confirmation, recognition. Trilogies. 45 3.5 Delay and deceit 55 CHAPTER 4: SPECIFIC NARRATIVE SEQUENCES 61 4.1 Persae 249—622 61 4.2 Central programmatic narrative scenes 76 4.2.1 Septem 369-719 80 4.2.2 Agamemnon 1072-1330 85 4.2.3 Prometheus Bound 661—886 93 4.3 Small messenger scenes 101 4.3.1 Septem 792-820 102 4.3.2 Supplices 600-624 105 continued... CONTENTS continued SECTION THREE: NARRATIVE DOLOS IN SOPHOCLES CHAPTER 5: NARRATIVE THEORIES, DOLOS AND SOPHOCLES 112 5.1 Doles and narrative theories: Greimas’veridictory square 112 5.2 Dolos and Greimas’ actantial theory 116 5.3 Actantial theory: Sophocles and Aeschylus compared 118 5.4 Actantial power in Ajax 124 CHAPTER 6: NARRATIVE LOOPS 131 6.1 Ajax 646-685 132 6.2 Trachiniae 180-496 135 6.3 Philoctetes 541-627 143 CHAPTER 7: DOLOS AND ELECTRA 1-763 152 7.1 Prologue or outer plot 1-85 154 7.2 Walling up 37311. 156 7.3 The dream 417-427 157 7.4 Stasimon 472-515 161 7.5 Eleetra and Clytemnestra’s agon 516-633 164 7.6 Clytemnestra’s prayer 637 - 659 165 7.7 False messenger scene 167 7.7.1 Opening dialogue 660-679 169 7.7.2 Introductory section 680-695 170 7.7.3 Main section: horse race 696-763 173 Concluding note 177 Diagrams 179 111 Stories are exciting; they are powerful and important for mankind. They give people what they want, on a very profound level - more than merely amusement or entertainment or suspense. People's primary requirement is that some kind of coherence is provided. Some stories give people the feeling that there is meshing, that there is ultimately an order lurking behind the incredible confusion of appearances and phenomena that surrounds them. This order is what people require more than anything else; yes, I would almost say that the notion of order or story is connected with the Godhead. Stories are substitutes for God, or maybe the other way round. I think stories are actually lies. But they are incredibly important to our survival. Their artificial structure helps us to overcome our worst fears: that there is no God; that we are nothing but tiny fluctuating particles with perception and consciousness, but lost in a universe that remains altogether beyond our conception. By producing coherence, stories make life bearable and combat fears. Wim Wender, from The Logic of Images, quoted in The Guardian 14.7.1994 IV INTRODUCTION This thesis reflects developments in narrative theory since the seventies. So far such developments have been applied largely outside the field of classical studies or, if within it, to more obviously narrative texts (e.g. Winkler on Apuleius, 1985 or de Jong 1987 and Richardson 1990 on epic). Although narrative theory is being increasingly applied to the field of tragedy too, it has to date formed the basis for comparatively restricted studies, such as Roberts' work on closure in Sophocles (1988) or de Jong on Euripidean messenger speeches (1991). This thesis begins by attempting an overview. Using the pioneering work of Genette on narrative time and Bal on focalisation. Section 1 outlines the role of narrative theory both for an analysis of tragedy in general and, more specifically, for the narrative elements found within tragedy. Section 11 on Aeschylus then attempts to analyse specific techniques used by the playwright in the light of these findings. New theory is introduced again at the start of Section 111 on Sophocles, where Detienne and Vemant's sociological study of metis and dolos is adopted as a model for the hermeneutic process and used in conjunction with Greimas' actantial theory. In general theory is used as a framework for interpreting the texts rather than vice versa. Section 1: Narrative theory and tragedy. Chapter 1 discusses the general validity of narrative theories for drama, reopening the old argument between drama and narrative (or showing versus telling) in an attempt to dispel this often unhelpful distinction and give due weight to the intense power of narrative to focalise experience. Chapter 2 divides tragic rheseis into different groups according to their temporal reach: (1) short-range narratives of immediate or recent past, including the traditional messenger speech (and simultaneous narratives - a subdivision of this first group) and (2), narratives of much greater temporal reach, whether this is analeptic or proleptic. In Greek tragedy, these long-range narratives are almost invariably cast as portents, prophecies, dreams and curses (PPDCs). Some of the best-known tragedies achieve some of their distinctive tragic effect by a similar narrative shaping in which long-range proleptic narratives are interwoven with shorter-range ones, culminating in the messenger's account. But PPDCs can be used analeptically to create closure as well as climax. Section II: Aeschylus. Chapter 3 discusses the comparative fluidity of formal narrative strategies in Aeschylus' surviving work. A narrative of recent or immediate past delivered by an anonymous messenger is never used as the climax of the work. A different strategy is employed: Aeschylus builds towards a huge central "programmatic" scene in which narratives of enormous temporal reach and comparable significance are delivered by a stage figure of supernatural abilities. This is often the "nerve centre" of the play or trilogy so far, which, with its restricted opening focalisation, has involved the audience in a complex hermeneutic process. Expectations concerning the structure of the play itself, as well as its outcome, are frequently deliberately subverted by the introduction of a series of well-marked delays and deceits. This technique can be contrasted with Euripides' practice, in which the action of the play is seemingly given in synopsis in the prologue. Aeschylus creates a narrative pendulum which, beginning with a small arc, sweeps tantalisingly to and fro over past and possible future. He exploits the inherently unmediated medium of drama, using dreams and oracles to create foci of suspense, uncertainty and ambiguity. In the central narrative scenes, extended prophetic narratives at last clarify and extend the understanding of past, present and future. Anagnorisis may erupt from this scene, or occur immediately afterwards. Chapter 4 analyses in more detail major sequences of message narrative in Aeschylus: first Persae 249-622, for which there is no close comparison in surviving tragedy, then three major programmatic scenes, the Shield scene of Septem.