From the Renaissance onwards Greek tragedy was recited, reimagined and reclaimed, giving voice to new political demands and aspirations. Amid wars, liberation movements, revolutions, and times of democracy, the restored ancient plays took the part of a political other that was sometimes underrepresented or suppressed, thereby unsettling cultural and ideological stabilities. Still, the reception of Greek Tragedy in the Middle East remained only sporadically examined, and this well-researched volume makes up a long-waited contribution to the subject, adding another volume to the academic series of Bloomsbury Publications that enriches our knowledge on the cultural endurance of Greek Drama.
The volume Greek Tragedy and the Middle East: Chasing the Myth commences from a very clear standpoint as the Introduction makes an important methodological statement. While Muslim scholars and translators presented Greek philosophy—particularly Aristotle’s Poetics—to the West during the Middle Ages, adaptations of Greek tragedies emerged in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region only at the onset of the 20th century. Consequently, the evolution of Greek tragedy in the Middle East cannot be separated from issues of colonialism and cultural imperialism. By appreciating language differences and providing a comprehensive approach to the Middle Eastern reception of Greek tragedy, this Bloomsbury volume offers a renewed perspective on an intriguing aspect of the classical tradition.
Employing the concept of interculturality to examine Middle Eastern adaptations of Greek tragedy from the early 20th century to the current era, this book first investigates the initial phase of Greek classical reception in Middle Eastern theatre. It subsequently concentrates on modern Arabic, Persian, and Turkish adaptations of Greek tragedy during both the early post-colonial and contemporary periods in the MENA and Europe. Case by case, this book analyzes how the classical sources are modified, reclaimed and adapted, as well as how they interact with interculturality, hybridization, and the exchange of aesthetics and models of interpretation. Accordingly, it investigates the implications and outcomes of addressing socio-political issues through classical Greek sources, showing how the Greek classics are questioning hegemonic and imperialist structures. In doing so, the volume retells a history of the resurgence of ancient myths within the artistic expressions and cultural standards of nations experiencing significant socio-political dynamics, thereby filtering tragedy as a logos that needs to be retransformed.
The volume is divided into three parts (following a historical perspective). Part One (Adaptations and Translations of Greek Tragedy in a Colonial Context: An Historical Perspective) provides a historical overview of the reception of the classics in Egypt and Turkey, spanning from the early twentieth century to the twenty-first century, with an emphasis on the reception of the Oedipus myth and its popularity in the MENA context. Although interactions between MENA nations and Greek culture have been active since ancient times, the period of colonization and the arrival of Europeans in the area represent a significant historical turning point that warrants detailed analysis. The chapters of this first part address these developments to elucidate this pivotal moment, offering a historical viewpoint on how the classics were embraced in Egypt and Turkey from the early twentieth century to the twenty-first century.
Colonialism and the presence of Europeans in the area are important historical occurrences that necessitate thorough scrutiny, despite the extensive cultural exchange that MENA nations have had with Greece since ancient times. The first chapter (“Tragic Ways, Tragic Voices: Translating Greek Tragedy into Arabic in the Wake of the Nahḍa” by Roberto Salazar) presents a refreshed discussion on the translation of Greek tragedy into Arabic in the aftermath of the Nahda, beginning with the contested translation by Ibn Rushd and its challenging reception over the years, including a related digression regarding the translation of the term ‘tragedy’ itself. Concentrating on reception, translating practices, and their ensuing effects as acts of resistance or submission to dominance, in this chapter, Roberto Salazar investigates these complex issues by establishing the historical context and analyzing specific cases. The second chapter (“Oedipus of Thebes on Arab Stages” by Marvin Carlson) examines the remarkable success of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus in Arab nations, starting from Najīb al-Ḥaddād’s 1905 Oedipus (which was based on the Voltaire’s Œdipe of 1718) to the present, including Wajdi Mouawad’s latest play, Tous les Oiseaux (All Birds, 2017). Marvin Carlson notes that the ongoing Arab fascination with this tale is vital for understanding the evolution of modern Arabic theatre, along with the political implications of depicting this myth through the various adaptations of Oedipus. In the third chapter (“From Ancient Greek Theatre to Turkish Theatre and Back: State of the Art”), Erica Letailleur examines the cultural appropriation of the ancient Greek canon in modern and contemporary Turkish theatre. By challenging the concept of artistic and cultural heritage, she reveals the impact of ancient Greece via both architectural traditions and theatrical texts. She also investigates the role of traditional collective forms and their interweaving constructs in this context.
Part Two (The Model as Diversion: A Tool to Tackle Political Issues on the Contemporary Stage) centers on the political aspect of Greek tragedy’s reception by MENA artists in the area from the twentieth into the twenty-first century. This part explores how contemporary artists from the region have adopted the tragic framework and its array of characters, emphasizing how socio-political matters and concrete political contexts employed the supposed ‘universality’ of Greek tragedy as a shield against political oppression, especially in societies under authoritarian or conservative regimes, given also that classical texts may be considered as either inappropriate or canonical in different national contexts.
Greek tragedy in MENA, as everywhere in the world, articulated the voices of the marginalized and the oppressed, and in the fourth chapter (“Brave Women in a Mad World: Euripides and the State of Exception in Arab Theatre”) Daniela Potenza explores Agamben’s theory of the permanent state of exception in certain contemporary Arab plays deriving from Greek tragedies. Omar Abusaada and Mohammad Al Attar’s Iphigenia (2017), Hanane Hajj Ali’s provocative play Jogging: Theatre in Progress (2012, latest version 2022), which portrays the despair of various Lebanese Medeas disempowered by their society, and Sulayman Al Bassam’s IMedea (2017, latest version 2022), which comments on contemporary European anxieties about Islam and the capacity of digital platforms to transform political discourse, are discussed in relation to Greek tragedies and their interpretations. This chapter shows how Greek tragedy today can serve as a foundation for unvoiced women’s narratives concerning issues of power, justice, law, war, and gender in regions where ‘the state of exception’ has become commonplace. This chapter is interconnected to the fifth chapter (“So Many Medeas! Medea in Iran and Lebanon since 2015”) and Yassaman Khajehi’s analysis of the role of Medea in modern Iranian and Lebanese theatre, where the social context is highly politicized. In these nations, the pursuit of women’s rights is caught between a cultural taboo and an imported Western model. This presents a challenge, yet the theatrical narrative offers the apparatus to showcase women’s roles and actions. The character of Medea and her connection to motherhood provide a safe space to address these matters. Furthermore, beyond the socio-political aspects of Euripides’ text and its examination of the margins, current events in Iran compel artists and audiences to reinterpret Medea’s tale in order to reconsider contemporary political challenges: create a new generation or alleviate economic and social hardship. Through various examples, such as Neda Shahrokhi’s Medea (2015) in Iran and Hanane Hajj Ali’s Jogging (2016) and Valérie Cachard’s Bloody Mary (2019–23) in Lebanon, this chapter illustrates the evolution and re-rendering of Medea from 2015 to 2023. The sixth chapter (“Antigone in Iran: Towards a Political Subject of Resistance” by Rezvan Zandieh) turns to Iranian theatre through modern Antigones, including Antigone (2010) by Popak Hidji, Antigone (2018) by Ali Razi, and Antigone (2011) by Homayoun Ghani Zadeh. The chapter conducts a comparative analysis of these adaptations to assess how the tragic content is reimagined, giving emphasis on how the universal aspects of Antigone are recontextualized within Iran. It also demonstrates how the adaptation of tragic material is utilized as an aesthetic strategy of resistance by Iranian artists to uncover what is prohibited from being articulated, or in other words, to bypass censorship. As this chapter concludes (p. 151), we appreciate, once again, the agonistic power of tragedy:
In the context of post-revolutionary Iranian society, the figure of Antigone is particularly fertile, as she resists power and the state, beyond her own death and even through it. […], through the ancient figures of Antigone and Creon, and behind the alibi of the apparent political neutrality of the tragic material, Iranian artists find a way to circumvent censorship and express criticism of the totalitarian power of the state. The adaptation of the tragic work is thus employed as an artistic strategy.
Through his sociological examination of Haythem Abderrazak’s Looking for Oresteia (2018), Antonio Pacifico identifies in the seventh chapter (“Looking at Iraq from Afar: Two Oresteia on European Stages”) the numerous challenges Iraqi stage directors encounter today in their nation. At the same time, he explores the uneven and often complex dynamics between a ‘peripheral’ field, such as the Iraqi’s, and the primary ‘centres’ of international theatre, particularly following the American invasion and the downfall of the Baathist regime in 2003.
Part Three (Greek Tragedy, a Shared Heritage?) critically examines the concept of Greek texts as ‘common/shared’ heritage, and addresses matters of interculturality, reception and postcolonial perspectives. It examines the modifications of the Greek materials as they traverse various cultural domains and politics. In the eighth chapter (“Ambivalence of Interpretation between Israel and France in Hanoch Levin’s Theatre Tragic Materials”), Emmanuelle Thiébot reflects on the political aspect of three adaptations of Greek tragedies in Hanoch Levin’s theatre. She illustrates the ambivalence of interpretations of these works between Israel and France: in Israel, they are regarded as significantly political, while in France they are approached with a neutral interpretation since the tragic lens has been supplanted by the absurd. If this highlights the adaptability of the classics, it also challenges its evaluation in different cultural contexts.
The two subsequent chapters address instances of international artistic collaborations between the MENA region and Europe. Astrid Chabrat-Kajdan (“Sophocles’ Antigone by French Director Adel Hakim (2011): Using Greek Tragedy to Pay Tribute to Palestinian Resistance”) examines Adel Hakim’s mise-en-scène of Antigone as a coproduction between the Théâtre des Quartier d’Ivry in France and the National Palestinian Theatre. This ninth chapter notes that this production achieved success in Europe, whereas Palestinian productions struggle to gain recognition within European theatrical institutions and argues that Hakim’s choices of adaptation and staging of a Greek tragedy (both as a familiar and foreign aesthetic entity to European audiences) created the conditions for a success. In the tenth chapter (“Looking at Iraq from Afar: Two Oresteia on European Stages”), Pauline Donizeau analyzes two Oresteias directed by European directors (Milo Rau in 2019 and Célie Pauthe in collaboration with Haythem Abderrazak in 2018) who reclaimed Aeschylus’ trilogy in order to address the ongoing situation of Iraq amidst war. She employs the theoretical frameworks of intercultural theatre studies to discuss these productions and their distinct approach to both the subject matter and the tragic materials. Finally, in the eleventh chapter (“Tingitanos by Zoubeir Ben Bouchta: A Moroccan Tragedy”) Omar Fertat focuses on the Moroccan artist Zoubeir Ben Bouchta, who employed Greek tragedy as an Arab-Tamazight heritage to relocate the narrative in his own city, Tangier, in his Tingitanos, an adaptation of Hercules’ myth. Such a proposal allows for a reevaluation of Greek tragedy as a suitable means for creolization and invites us to rethink the very concept of universalism and humanism.
In conclusion, the volume Greek Tragedy and the Middle East re-establishes the cultural power of Greek tragedy and its availability to be adapted, modified, evolved, decolonized, and reimagined, giving voice to the oppressed and the underrepresented. At the same time, it critically problematizes the Eurocentric interpretations of Greek plays, offering thereby a reference book on the reception of Greek tragedy in the Middle East. Or, as the editors conclude in the Afterword (p. 249):
[…] the sources some of us examined were often Orientalists, so we had to maintain a distance from them. Besides that, the fact of expressing ourselves in a language that is not our mother tongue (for ten contributors out of eleven) puts us at a higher risk of not really understanding the implications of the words used. Patient dialogue solved clashes. Indeed, we were inflexible on that front. We hope that future research will take the same perspective and investigate the materials that exist, particularly in MENA university libraries, but are difficult to find due to a shortage of access and classification.