Emotion in Action: Thucydides and the Tragic Chorus

Eirene Visvardi, PhD (2007), is Assistant Professor of Classical Studies at Wesleyan University.

"Visvardi is moving here to some thought-provoking and provocative claims which offer a new approach to debates on the social function(s) of tragedy. (...) [T]here is much interesting material for students of the relevant authors as well as of ancient (and modern) democracy to ponder." Tim Rood, CJ-Online 2016.09.10.''This book thus offers a wide-ranging and thoughtful investigation of emotion as expressed by different collectives and as harnessed to different goals. It affords much of interest about Thucydidean political discussions and about individual plays, and there is also some fascinating comparative material from, for instance, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. (...) In its particular focus, however, on the stimulation andguidance of collective emotion, and on the contribution, which that emotion may make to the polity, the book is a valuable intervention in a debate that is underway in many quarters.'' Barbara Goff, Polis 2018.35