Ugly Productions
Amidst a culture otherwise obsessed with beauty, the Greek theater provided a unique space for Athenians to play with ugliness—to try these anti-ideals on for size. Such imaginative play was considered dangerous by some, such as Plato, who feared its corrupting influence; others, including Aristotle...
Sábháilte in:
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| Formáid: | Online |
| Teanga: | Béarla |
| Foilsithe / Cruthaithe: |
University of Michigan Press
2025
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| Ábhair: | |
| Rochtain ar líne: | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/98434 |
| Clibeanna: |
Níl clibeanna ann, Bí ar an gcéad duine le clib a chur leis an taifead seo!
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| _version_ | 1869513759005868032 |
|---|---|
| author | Duncan, A. C. |
| author_browse | Duncan, A. C. |
| author_facet | Duncan, A. C. |
| author_sort | Duncan, A. C. |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | Amidst a culture otherwise obsessed with beauty, the Greek theater provided a unique space for Athenians to play with ugliness—to try these anti-ideals on for size. Such imaginative play was considered dangerous by some, such as Plato, who feared its corrupting influence; others, including Aristotle, saw the theater’s provocation and release of emotions as educational and even therapeutic. Sophocles’ and Euripides’ fifth-century audiences could not help but directly confront the ugliness of their drama, but as cultural memory of embodied productions faded, an abstracted contrast emerged between beautiful tragedy and ugly comedy—a pernicious aesthetic polarization that persists to this day. A. C. Duncan’s Ugly Productions embraces the materiality of the theater, arguing that dramatic aesthetics are best understood within affective frameworks where beauty or ugliness are produced through a dynamic interplay of verbal and visual modalities. Duncan reframes the Greek concept of “the ugly” not as mere “anti-beauty,” but as an affective disposition positively associated with such painful emotions as pity, fear, grief, and abjection.
Through studies of the figures of Xerxes, Electra, Philoctetes, Ajax, Heracles, and other tragic figures, Ugly Productions offers detailed analyses of the various ways ugliness was produced in performance with each chapter serving as an in-depth guide for studying the aesthetics of these works. Duncan confronts the historical neglect of ugliness in critical discourses, calling for a revaluation of negative aesthetics and renewed interest in the uglier aspects of these canonical works of theater. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-151351 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | University of Michigan Press |
| publisherStr | University of Michigan Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1513512025-07-21T15:44:31Z Ugly Productions Duncan, A. C. the abject, Aeschylus, Aesthetics, affect, ancient Greece, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Athens, beauty, cognition, corpses, costume, deformity, Dionysus, drama, Euripides, gender, genre, literary criticism, masks, materiality, objects, Oedipus, Oresteia, performance, phenomenology, Plato, Poetics, rags, semiotics, Sophocles, theater, Theater of Dionysus, theory, ugliness thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts::DDA Classic and pre-20th century plays thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBB Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts::DDA Classic and pre-20th century plays thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBB Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies Amidst a culture otherwise obsessed with beauty, the Greek theater provided a unique space for Athenians to play with ugliness—to try these anti-ideals on for size. Such imaginative play was considered dangerous by some, such as Plato, who feared its corrupting influence; others, including Aristotle, saw the theater’s provocation and release of emotions as educational and even therapeutic. Sophocles’ and Euripides’ fifth-century audiences could not help but directly confront the ugliness of their drama, but as cultural memory of embodied productions faded, an abstracted contrast emerged between beautiful tragedy and ugly comedy—a pernicious aesthetic polarization that persists to this day. A. C. Duncan’s Ugly Productions embraces the materiality of the theater, arguing that dramatic aesthetics are best understood within affective frameworks where beauty or ugliness are produced through a dynamic interplay of verbal and visual modalities. Duncan reframes the Greek concept of “the ugly” not as mere “anti-beauty,” but as an affective disposition positively associated with such painful emotions as pity, fear, grief, and abjection. Through studies of the figures of Xerxes, Electra, Philoctetes, Ajax, Heracles, and other tragic figures, Ugly Productions offers detailed analyses of the various ways ugliness was produced in performance with each chapter serving as an in-depth guide for studying the aesthetics of these works. Duncan confronts the historical neglect of ugliness in critical discourses, calling for a revaluation of negative aesthetics and renewed interest in the uglier aspects of these canonical works of theater. 2025-02-16T10:52:11Z 2025-02-16T10:52:11Z 2025-02-11T10:08:22Z 2025 book https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/98434 9780472133598 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/151351 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/98434/1/9780472904853.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/98434/1/9780472904853.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/98434/1/9780472904853.pdf University of Michigan Press 10.3998/mpub.12823887 10.3998/mpub.12823887 b7359529-e5f7-4510-a59f-d7dafa1d4d17 9780472133598 293 open access |
| spellingShingle | the abject, Aeschylus, Aesthetics, affect, ancient Greece, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Athens, beauty, cognition, corpses, costume, deformity, Dionysus, drama, Euripides, gender, genre, literary criticism, masks, materiality, objects, Oedipus, Oresteia, performance, phenomenology, Plato, Poetics, rags, semiotics, Sophocles, theater, Theater of Dionysus, theory, ugliness thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts::DDA Classic and pre-20th century plays thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBB Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts::DDA Classic and pre-20th century plays thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBB Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies Duncan, A. C. Ugly Productions |
| title | Ugly Productions |
| title_full | Ugly Productions |
| title_fullStr | Ugly Productions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ugly Productions |
| title_short | Ugly Productions |
| title_sort | ugly productions |
| topic | the abject, Aeschylus, Aesthetics, affect, ancient Greece, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Athens, beauty, cognition, corpses, costume, deformity, Dionysus, drama, Euripides, gender, genre, literary criticism, masks, materiality, objects, Oedipus, Oresteia, performance, phenomenology, Plato, Poetics, rags, semiotics, Sophocles, theater, Theater of Dionysus, theory, ugliness thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts::DDA Classic and pre-20th century plays thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBB Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts::DDA Classic and pre-20th century plays thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBB Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies |
| topic_facet | the abject, Aeschylus, Aesthetics, affect, ancient Greece, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Athens, beauty, cognition, corpses, costume, deformity, Dionysus, drama, Euripides, gender, genre, literary criticism, masks, materiality, objects, Oedipus, Oresteia, performance, phenomenology, Plato, Poetics, rags, semiotics, Sophocles, theater, Theater of Dionysus, theory, ugliness thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts::DDA Classic and pre-20th century plays thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBB Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DD Plays, playscripts::DDA Classic and pre-20th century plays thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBB Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies |
| url | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/98434 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT duncanac uglyproductions |