Isabelle Torrance's Books

Metapoetry in Euripides

By: Isabelle Torrance,Isabelle C. Torrance

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Metapoetry in Euripides

By: Isabelle Torrance,Isabelle C. Torrance

A detailed study of the self-conscious narrative devices within Euripidean drama and how these are interwoven with issues of thematic importance, social, theological, or political. Torrance argues that Euripides employed a complex system of metapoetic strategies in order to draw the audience's attention to the novelty of his compositions.

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Page Count

380

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199657831

ISBN 13

9780199657834

Aeschylus: Seven Against Thebes

By: Isabelle Torrance

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Aeschylus: Seven Against Thebes

By: Isabelle Torrance

One of our earliest surviving Greek tragedies, Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes is an extraordinarily rich poetic text. It dramatises the civil war between the sons of Oedipus Polynices - the exile, and Eteocles - reigning king of Thebes. Polynices marches on Thebes to regain his throne along with six other champion warriors and their armies, but the expedition is doomed, and the meaning of Oedipus' enigmatic curse on his sons ultimately becomes clear through their simultaneous fratricide and the extinction of the Theban house. This book places the drama within the context of the connected trilogy of which it was a part. It investigates the play's tensions between city and family and the omnipresence of curse and ritual within the religious and political environment of fifth century Greece. The drama's focus on the world of male warriors, and its stark opposition of the sexes through the female Chorus, is analysed in terms of warrior ideology in epic and Greek understanding of appropriate behaviour. Finally, it explores the complex legacy of the play through its influence on Sophocles and Euripides, and shows how the drama's condemnation of civil war has been exploited as an analogue for events in modern history. This is part of a series of accessible introductions to ancient tragedies. Each volume discusses the main themes of a play and the central developments in modern criticism, while also addressing the play's historical context and the history of its performance and adaptation.

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Page Count

175

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

147253767X

ISBN 13

9781472537676

Oaths and Swearing in Ancient Greece

By: Alan H. Sommerstein,Isabelle C. Torrance

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Oaths and Swearing in Ancient Greece

By: Alan H. Sommerstein,Isabelle C. Torrance

The oath was an institution of fundamental importance across a wide range of social interactions throughout the ancient Greek world, making a crucial contribution to social stability and harmony; yet there has been no comprehensive, dedicated scholarly study of the subject for over a century. This volume of a two-volume study explores the nature of oaths as Greeks perceived it, the ways in which they were used (and sometimes abused) in Greek life and literature, and their inherent binding power.

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Page Count

474

Publisher

Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published Date

ISBN 10

3110227363

ISBN 13

9783110227369

Euripides: Iphigenia among the Taurians

By: Isabelle Torrance

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Euripides: Iphigenia among the Taurians

By: Isabelle Torrance

In this new student introduction to a Greek tragedy, Isabelle Torrance looks at what makes Iphigenia among the Taurians a successful tragedy in ancient Greek terms, and how dramatic excitement is achieved through the exotic setting, the cast of characters, and the chorus. Assuming no knowledge of Greek, and with students in mind, the central themes of ethnicity and gender relations are examined to show how Euripides manipulates established stereotypes. The play was one of Aristotle's favourites and his enthusiasm derived from the fact that, in spite of its ostensibly happy ending, the play presents the audience with an exquisitely constructed reversal of events: when Iphigenia recognizes that she has been about to sacrifice her long-lost brother, kin-murder is avoided and the plot turns into an escape drama. Other significant concerns of the play surround ritual and the gods, and these are discussed to highlight how the drama asks probing theological questions. Finally, the vast reception history of the play in a variety of genres, such as ancient comedy, Roman philosophy, European opera, and 20th century theatre, is sketched out from antiquity to the present day.

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Page Count

177

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1350070076

ISBN 13

9781350070073

Religion Against the Self

An Ethnography of Tamil Rituals

By: Isabelle Clark-Decès,Isabelle Nabokov

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Religion Against the Self

An Ethnography of Tamil Rituals

By: Isabelle Clark-Decès,Isabelle Nabokov

This study, based on the author's fieldwork among rural Tamil villagers in South India, focuses on the ways in which people in this society interact with the supernatural beings who play such a large role in their personal and corporate lives. Isabelle Navokov looks at a spectrum of ritualized contexts in which the boundaries between the natural and spiritual worlds are penetrated and communication takes place. Throughout, Nabokov's meticulous analysis sheds new light on this hiterto almost unknown domain - and entire range of fascinating phenomena basic to South Indian religion as it is really lived.

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Page Count

245

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195113640

ISBN 13

9780195113648

Taoist Meditation

The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity

By: Isabelle Robinet

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Taoist Meditation

The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity

By: Isabelle Robinet

Isabelle Robinet's Taoist Meditation is the first and only scholarly study to discuss the ancient Mao-shan Taoist tradition of visionary meditation while, at the same time, helping to clarify the little understood relationship among the early Taoist classics, the Buddhist tradition, and the later Taoist religion. Most importantly, Taoist Meditation is a pioneering study that fully and accurately describes the unique visionary cosmology, bodily symbolism, astral journeys, internal alchemy, meditational techniques, and ritual practices of the Mao-shan or Shang-chi'ing (Great Purity) movement—one of the most important foundational traditions making up the overall Taoist religion. This English version of Robinet's work is more than a simple translation.Taoist Meditation presents a significantly expanded edition of the original French text which includes up-to-date bibliographies of Robinet's work and other Western scholarship on Taoism, additional illustrations, and a newly compiled list of textual citations.

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Page Count

322

Publisher

State University of New York Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1438417535

ISBN 13

9781438417530

Religion Against the Self : An Ethnography of Tamil Rituals

An Ethnography of Tamil Rituals

By: Isabelle Nabokov Assistant Professor of Anthropology Princeton University

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Religion Against the Self : An Ethnography of Tamil Rituals

An Ethnography of Tamil Rituals

By: Isabelle Nabokov Assistant Professor of Anthropology Princeton University

In this comprehensive analysis of South Indian village Hinduism, Isabelle Nabokov shows that a wide spectrum of Tamil rituals effects transformations of identity through similar processual and symbolic operations. She reveals that such operations may lead participants to adopt personalities which are at odds with themselves.

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Page Count

250

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198027354

ISBN 13

9780198027355

Metapoetry in Euripides

By: Isabelle Torrance,Isabelle C. Torrance

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Metapoetry in Euripides

By: Isabelle Torrance,Isabelle C. Torrance

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Page Count

380

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199657831

ISBN 13

9780199657834

Euripides

By: Isabelle Torrance

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Euripides

By: Isabelle Torrance

Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides are often described as the greatest tragedians of the ancient world. Of these three pivotal founders of modern drama, Euripides is characterized as the interloper and the innovator: the man who put tragic verse into the mouths of slaves, women and the socially inferior in order to address vital social issues such as sex, class and gender relations. It is perhaps little wonder that his work should find such resonance in the modern day. In this concise introduction, Isabelle Torrance engages with the thematic, cultural and scholarly difficulties that surround his plays to demonstrate why Euripides remains a figure of perennial relevance. Addressing here issues of social context, performance theory, fifth-century philosophy and religion, textual criticism and reception, the author presents an astute and attractively-written guide to the Euripidean corpus – from the widely read and celebrated Medea to the lesser-known and deeply ambiguous Alcestis.

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