The Passions in Play Thyestes and the Dynamics of Senecan Drama [Hardcover]

Critical analysis of Senecan tragedy with a particular emphasis on his most accomplished play.This book subjects the most accomplished and important of Seneca's tragedies to the kind of sustained critical analysis nowadays available for authors such as Virgil, Ovid and Lucan. Drawing many insights from psychoanalytic theory, but building mostly on recent advances in post-Virgilian literary criticism, it also discusses several other plays of Seneca, thereby offering a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the main themes and stylistic features of his tragedies. Arguing for the central importance of Thyestes in post-Classical aesthetics, it offers important insights into authors such as Ovid and Lucan.This book subjects the most accomplished and important of Seneca's tragedies to the kind of sustained critical analysis nowadays available for authors such as Virgil, Ovid and Lucan. Drawing many insights from psychoanalytic theory, but building mostly on recent advances in post-Virgilian literary criticism, it also discusses several other plays of Seneca, thereby offering a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the main themes and stylistic features of his tragedies. Arguing for the central importance of Thyestes in post-Classical aesthetics, it offers important insights into authors such as Ovid and Lucan.This book subjects the most accomplished and important of Seneca's tragedies Thyestes to the kind of critical analysis now available for authors such as Virgil, Ovid and Lucan. Drawing many insights from psychoanalytic theory, and recent advances in post-Virgilian literary criticism, it also discusses several other plays of Seneca. The volume presents, therefore, a detailed and comprehensive analysis of all the main themes and stylistic features of Seneca's tragedies. While stressing the importance of Thyestes in post-Classical aesthetics, the study offers important insights into authors such as Ovid and Lucan as well.Acknowledgements; Note on translations; Introdl