Ways of Hearing in Sophokles: Auditory Spaces and Social Dynamics in the Elektra, Philoktetes, Trachiniai, and Oidipous Tyrannos

• Main Author: Robinson, Miranda
• Other Authors: Wohl, Victoria
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Sophokles; hearing; 0465; 0679; 0289; 0294
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/65734

It has long been known that sight was a crucial component of the fifth-century Athenian theatre. And while that is true, it can also be argued that aurality, the ability to hear and be heard, is an equally important aspect of Athenian drama. This dissertation strives to reclaim a place for hearing in studies on tragedy generally and on Sophokles in particular. Adopting terms from radio theory and media theory, I suggest that Athens was both an acoustic space and an aural community. In the course of an examination of four tragedies, I engage with the following question: how do the characters in these plays hear? Analyzing each play in turn, I show how hearing can occur physically, socially, publically and politically respectively. For Elektra, hearing is a physical and psychic blow; for Philoktetes, hearing is how he connects with the world around him and how he tries to reconnect with people; for Deianeira, hearing is a dangerous phenomenon capable over overturing her own predictions and capable of causing her to lose control of the final shape of her aural reputation; for Oidipous, hearing is an expression of his political status and ultimately a cause of his fall from power. The results of this study show that, in each case, the act of hearing is an invasive process in which the sonant object, mobile and semi-autonomous, can intrude upon new spaces, stage and body alike. This dissertation contributes to a growing body of literature on aurality in tragedy and enhances our understanding of the interconnections between hearing, society, politics, and the individual.