The City and the Stage

Marcus Folch is Assistant Professor of Classics at Columbia University. His published work includes studies of ancient Greek literature, philosophy, and literary criticism, as well as classical reception in the 20th century.

Introduction: Performance and the Second-Best City ; Abstract ; 1 Introduction ; 2 An Ancient Quarrel Revisited ; 3 The Laws, Its City, Its Scope ; 4 Paradigmatism and the 'Second-Best' Politeia ; 5 The Correct Method (orthe methodos) of Cultural Criticism ; 6 Conclusions ; Notes ; Chapter 1. Marionettes of the Soul: Performance and the Psychology of Mousike in Plato's Laws ; Abstract ; 1.1 Introduction ; 1.2 Theoretical Orientations: Performance, Performativity, Political Dissent ; 1.3 Of Puppets and Passions: The Moral Psychology of Performance in Plato's Laws ; 1.4 Virtue, Education, Aesthetic Response: A Model of Performativity ; 1.5 Inscription and the Making of a Philosophical Performance Culture ; 1.6 Conclusions ; Notes ; Chapter 2. The Chorus and the Critic: Literary Criticism, Theatrocracy, and the Performance of Philosophy ; Abstract ; 2.1 Introduction ; 2.2 Critical Errors: Genre, Theatrocracy, and the Unideal City ; 2.3 Setting the Stage: Pleasure, Judgment, and the Performance of Philosophy ; 2.4 Beyond the Choral Muse: The Chorus of Dionysus and the Metaphysics of Literary Criticism ; 2.5 Conclusions ; Notes ; Chapter 3. Laws' Genres: Hymns, Encomia, and the Remaking of Lament ; Abstract ; 3.1 Th Introduction: ; 3.2 The Laws' Genres: Hymns, Encomia, and the Politics of Euphemia ; 3.3 The Laws in Praise and Blame ; 3.4 Funerary Regained ; 3.5 Conclusions ; Notes ; Chapter 4. Unideal Genres and the Ideal City: Comedy, Tragedy, and the Limits of the City Dancing ; Abstract ; 4.1 Introduction ; 4.2 Comedy, Threnody, and the Performance of Alterity ; 4.3 From Antithesis to Identity: Comedic and Iambic Invective ; 4.4 Plato's Tragic Muse ; 4.5 Beyond the Politics of Performance: ta bakkheia and the Genres of Ecstasy ; 4.6 Conclusions ; Notes ; Chapter 5. Women's Statuses in Plato's Laws: Nature, Gender, Law, and the Performance of Citizenship ; Abstract ; 5.1 Introduction ; 5.2 'Natural' Heterosexuality ; 5.3 Transgendered Virtues and the Social Contract ; 5.4 Natural Correction: Feasting, Warfare, Schooling, and the 'Trope of Life' (tropos tou biou) ; 5.5 Unnatural Limitations: The Political Lives of Women ; 5.6 Conclusions ; Notes ; Chapter 6. Engendering Harmonies: Women's Songs in Plato's Laws ; Abstract ; 6.1 Introduction ; 6.2 Veils of Silence: Women, Theater, and Performance in Athens and Magnesia ; 6.3 Performance, Performativity, and the Making of Citizen Women ; 6.4 'Cultic Citizenship' Revisited: Lament and the Female Voice ; 6.5 Conclusions ; Notes ; Epilogue. Plato's Last Long: A Postlude on Law and the Preludes ; Bibliography