Suspended Temporalities and Classical Reception: Cassandra in Anne Carson’s Agamemnon
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Zina Giannopoulou
Abstract
I explore three translation techniques which Anne Carson uses in her rendition of Cassandra’s scene in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon: transliteration and onomatopoeia, wordplay, and the interjection [scream]. All three modes of translation generate textually distinctive passages - capitalized, italicized, and bracketed chunks of text - which gesturally interrupt language and the events it describes, bringing out Cassandra’s fractured psyche in the wake of her grief over the loss of Troy and its people. The spatial figurations mapped by these techniques create “bubbles” of time, suspended temporalities where the present is experienced like an intensely affective unit of time that disrupts narrative linearity. The intensified present moments thus produced problematize the bilinear past/present/past temporal paradigm that tends to prevail in discussions of Classical Reception.
Abstract
I explore three translation techniques which Anne Carson uses in her rendition of Cassandra’s scene in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon: transliteration and onomatopoeia, wordplay, and the interjection [scream]. All three modes of translation generate textually distinctive passages - capitalized, italicized, and bracketed chunks of text - which gesturally interrupt language and the events it describes, bringing out Cassandra’s fractured psyche in the wake of her grief over the loss of Troy and its people. The spatial figurations mapped by these techniques create “bubbles” of time, suspended temporalities where the present is experienced like an intensely affective unit of time that disrupts narrative linearity. The intensified present moments thus produced problematize the bilinear past/present/past temporal paradigm that tends to prevail in discussions of Classical Reception.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments VII
- Contents IX
- List of Figures XIII
- Introduction: Classical Reception in the Early 2020s, Critical Times and Where to Next? 1
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Part I: Concepts, Methods, and Intersections in Classical Reception
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Section 1: Re-Thinking Classical Reception
- The Master’s Tools?: Towards a Politics of Reception 23
- Classics on the Surface: Classical Reception as an Emergent Process 41
- Masked Celluloid Classics? Shadows of Clytemnestra in Film Noir 61
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Section 2: Working with Archives
- The “Advent of the New Rule”: An Oresteia (1947) in Prague and the Epistemological Limits of Archivalia 87
- Karolos Koun’s Art Theatre, the Greek Dictatorship, and the Ford Foundation: From Handout to Handshake 119
- Narcissus, Adonis, and Medusa: Troubled Beauty in Classical Receptions of Film Stardom 139
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Section 3: Cultural Intersections
- Mocking the Hollywood Epic Canon: Parodies of the Classical World from Latin American Cinema’s Studio Era 169
- Suspended Temporalities and Classical Reception: Cassandra in Anne Carson’s Agamemnon 193
- Manga and the Power of the Classical Object: The Merging of Eastern and Western Traditions 215
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Part II: Classical Receptions in Response to Societal Challenges
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Section 4: Forming and Re-Negotiating Identities
- Cripping Venus: Intersections of Classics and Disability Studies in Contemporary Receptions of the Venus de Milo 239
- Social Justice-Engaged Reception Pedagogy at Wake Forest University 265
- Classics on the Italian Stage: Old Habits and ‘New Deals’ 279
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Section 5: Greek Tragedy in a Time of Pandemic
- Tragedy as an Open Network: Antigone in Ferguson (2016–) and The Nurse Antigone (2022–2023) 307
- “Where’s the Body?”: Performing Iphigenia at Aulis in New Zealand during the Pandemic (2020) 329
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Section 6: Engaging with Technology and the Wider Public
- Escaping Hades: Playing with Classical Reception 357
- Classical Reception Meets Pedagogy: The Creation and Uses of the Panoply Vase Animation Project's Our Mythical Childhood and Locus Ludi Animations 383
- List of Contributors 409
- Index 415
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments VII
- Contents IX
- List of Figures XIII
- Introduction: Classical Reception in the Early 2020s, Critical Times and Where to Next? 1
-
Part I: Concepts, Methods, and Intersections in Classical Reception
-
Section 1: Re-Thinking Classical Reception
- The Master’s Tools?: Towards a Politics of Reception 23
- Classics on the Surface: Classical Reception as an Emergent Process 41
- Masked Celluloid Classics? Shadows of Clytemnestra in Film Noir 61
-
Section 2: Working with Archives
- The “Advent of the New Rule”: An Oresteia (1947) in Prague and the Epistemological Limits of Archivalia 87
- Karolos Koun’s Art Theatre, the Greek Dictatorship, and the Ford Foundation: From Handout to Handshake 119
- Narcissus, Adonis, and Medusa: Troubled Beauty in Classical Receptions of Film Stardom 139
-
Section 3: Cultural Intersections
- Mocking the Hollywood Epic Canon: Parodies of the Classical World from Latin American Cinema’s Studio Era 169
- Suspended Temporalities and Classical Reception: Cassandra in Anne Carson’s Agamemnon 193
- Manga and the Power of the Classical Object: The Merging of Eastern and Western Traditions 215
-
Part II: Classical Receptions in Response to Societal Challenges
-
Section 4: Forming and Re-Negotiating Identities
- Cripping Venus: Intersections of Classics and Disability Studies in Contemporary Receptions of the Venus de Milo 239
- Social Justice-Engaged Reception Pedagogy at Wake Forest University 265
- Classics on the Italian Stage: Old Habits and ‘New Deals’ 279
-
Section 5: Greek Tragedy in a Time of Pandemic
- Tragedy as an Open Network: Antigone in Ferguson (2016–) and The Nurse Antigone (2022–2023) 307
- “Where’s the Body?”: Performing Iphigenia at Aulis in New Zealand during the Pandemic (2020) 329
-
Section 6: Engaging with Technology and the Wider Public
- Escaping Hades: Playing with Classical Reception 357
- Classical Reception Meets Pedagogy: The Creation and Uses of the Panoply Vase Animation Project's Our Mythical Childhood and Locus Ludi Animations 383
- List of Contributors 409
- Index 415
