Voices at Work

Women, Performance, and Labor in Ancient Greece

Inbunden, Engelska, 2014

AvAndromache Karanika,Irvine) Karanika, Andromache (Associate Professor, Classics, University of California

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In ancient Greece, women's daily lives were occupied by various forms of labor. These experiences of work have largely been forgotten. Andromache Karanika has examined Greek poetry for depictions of women working and has discovered evidence of their lamentations and work songs. Voices at Work explores the complex relationships between ancient Greek poetry, the female poetic voice, and the practices and rituals surrounding women's labor in the ancient world. The poetic voice is closely tied to women's domestic and agricultural labor. Weaving, for example, was both a common form of female labor and a practice referred to for understanding the craft of poetry. Textile and agricultural production involved storytelling, singing, and poetry. Everyday labor employed-beyond its socioeconomic function - the power of poetic creation. Karanika starts with the assumption that there are certain forms of poetic expression and performance in the ancient world which are distinctively female.She considers these to be markers of a female "voice" in ancient Greek poetry and presents a number of case studies: Calypso and Circe sing while they weave; in Odyssey 6 a washing scene captures female performances. Both of these instances are examples of the female voice filtered into the fabric of the epic. Karanika brings to the surface the words of women who informed the oral tradition from which Greek epic poetry emerged. In other words, she gives a voice to silence.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2014-05-27
Mått152 x 229 x 26 mm
Vikt567 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor320
FörlagJohns Hopkins University Press
ISBN9781421412559

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Litteraturvetenskap inom Skonlitteratur
Genusvetenskap inom Samhalle och politik
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AcknowledgmentsNote on Transliteration and TranslationIntroduction1. Women, Labor, and Performance in Homer2. Gender, Genre, and Women's Work in the Odyssey3. Work and Performance in Captivity4. Fragments of Songs, Moments at Work5. Finding Work Songs, Dances, and Ritual Acts6. From Lullabies to Children's Songs: Some Diachronic Perspectives7. No More Weaving: The Poetics of Interruption8. The Tradition of Harvesting SongsEpilogueNotesBibliographyIndex

This fascinating investigation of a previously neglected topic will appeal to those interested in classics, gender studies, and the history of work. Choice Drawing from a wealth of ancient and comparative sources, and harnessing a range of theoretical approaches, Karanika offers a landmark study of female labour and Greek poetics. The book... offers important new insights into Greek poetry. -- Barbara Graziosi Times Higher Education Voices at Work adds to a growing corpus of scholarship on female vocality in the ancient world and, with its focus on the nexus between the female voice, women's labour and poetics, brings an important and valuable new dimension to the field. Cloelia: Women's Classical Caucus Newsletter In this challenging and sophisticated book, Andromache Karanika works against the grain of ancient disdain for songs related to women and work, in order to (re)establish the central pace of femininity and labor in ancient poetics... Karanika successfully adumbrates a diverse array of genres and gendered voices which are muted or silenced in ancient sources and modern scholarship. Her work demonstrates a mastery of a multitude of evidence... Karanika's monograph deserves a wide audience. -- Peter Miller Bryn Mawr Classical Review