Aporia and action in Euripides’ <i>Iphigeneia at Aulis</i>

Autores
Wohl, Victoria
Año de publicación
2015
Idioma
español castellano
Tipo de recurso
documento de conferencia
Estado
versión publicada
Descripción
Tragedy, Aristotle tells us, is a mimēsis of a praxis. Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis not only imitates an action: it is an exploration of the very possibility of action, both dramatic and political. Produced posthumously in the Spring of 405 BCE, the play is structured by aporia, a paralysis of political will that also paralyzes the plot and threatens to unwrite reality itself. The play attempts to loosen this bind by rooting political decision in the individual will of an autonomous agent, first Agamemnon, then Iphigeneia. But this process fails: the play’s many and notorious changes of mind identify decision as the political act par excellence, but also represent the moment of decision as a madness (in Kierkegaard’s phrase), as the agent, far from generating his or her own act, is subsumed and obliterated by it. The dramatic aporia resolved by the character’s choice is merely shifted to that choice itself, which exposes the mysterious gap between praxis and prattōn. Moreover, to the extent that the play succeeds in suturing action to an agent, that individual agent – simultaneously savior and scapegoat – effaces the collective deliberation of democratic politics: real political agency is replaced by the fantasy of a super-subject who will act on behalf of and in place of the demos. Staging praxis as a problem, the play’s mimēsis becomes a meditation on the failure of political agency and of democratic politics
Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación
Materia
Humanidades
Letras
Mundo Griego
Drama
Filosofía
tragedy
Euripides
Iphigeneia at Aulis
aporia
action
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ar/
Repositorio
SEDICI (UNLP)
Institución
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
OAI Identificador
oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/55544

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spelling Aporia and action in Euripides’ <i>Iphigeneia at Aulis</i>Wohl, VictoriaHumanidadesLetrasMundo GriegoDramaFilosofíatragedyEuripidesIphigeneia at AulisaporiaactionTragedy, Aristotle tells us, is a mimēsis of a praxis. Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis not only imitates an action: it is an exploration of the very possibility of action, both dramatic and political. Produced posthumously in the Spring of 405 BCE, the play is structured by aporia, a paralysis of political will that also paralyzes the plot and threatens to unwrite reality itself. The play attempts to loosen this bind by rooting political decision in the individual will of an autonomous agent, first Agamemnon, then Iphigeneia. But this process fails: the play’s many and notorious changes of mind identify decision as the political act par excellence, but also represent the moment of decision as a madness (in Kierkegaard’s phrase), as the agent, far from generating his or her own act, is subsumed and obliterated by it. The dramatic aporia resolved by the character’s choice is merely shifted to that choice itself, which exposes the mysterious gap between praxis and prattōn. Moreover, to the extent that the play succeeds in suturing action to an agent, that individual agent – simultaneously savior and scapegoat – effaces the collective deliberation of democratic politics: real political agency is replaced by the fantasy of a super-subject who will act on behalf of and in place of the demos. Staging praxis as a problem, the play’s mimēsis becomes a meditation on the failure of political agency and of democratic politicsFacultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación2015-06info:eu-repo/semantics/conferenceObjectinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionResumenhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_5794info:ar-repo/semantics/documentoDeConferenciaapplication/pdfhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/55544spainfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/http://coloquiointernacionalceh.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/conferencias/Victoria%20Wohl.pdfinfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/2250-7388info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ar/Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Argentina (CC BY-NC-ND 2.5)reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Platainstacron:UNLP2025-09-29T11:05:44Zoai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/55544Institucionalhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicaNo correspondehttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/oai/snrdalira@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13292025-09-29 11:05:44.327SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Platafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Aporia and action in Euripides’ <i>Iphigeneia at Aulis</i>
title Aporia and action in Euripides’ <i>Iphigeneia at Aulis</i>
spellingShingle Aporia and action in Euripides’ <i>Iphigeneia at Aulis</i>
Wohl, Victoria
Humanidades
Letras
Mundo Griego
Drama
Filosofía
tragedy
Euripides
Iphigeneia at Aulis
aporia
action
title_short Aporia and action in Euripides’ <i>Iphigeneia at Aulis</i>
title_full Aporia and action in Euripides’ <i>Iphigeneia at Aulis</i>
title_fullStr Aporia and action in Euripides’ <i>Iphigeneia at Aulis</i>
title_full_unstemmed Aporia and action in Euripides’ <i>Iphigeneia at Aulis</i>
title_sort Aporia and action in Euripides’ <i>Iphigeneia at Aulis</i>
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Wohl, Victoria
author Wohl, Victoria
author_facet Wohl, Victoria
author_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Humanidades
Letras
Mundo Griego
Drama
Filosofía
tragedy
Euripides
Iphigeneia at Aulis
aporia
action
topic Humanidades
Letras
Mundo Griego
Drama
Filosofía
tragedy
Euripides
Iphigeneia at Aulis
aporia
action
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv Tragedy, Aristotle tells us, is a mimēsis of a praxis. Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis not only imitates an action: it is an exploration of the very possibility of action, both dramatic and political. Produced posthumously in the Spring of 405 BCE, the play is structured by aporia, a paralysis of political will that also paralyzes the plot and threatens to unwrite reality itself. The play attempts to loosen this bind by rooting political decision in the individual will of an autonomous agent, first Agamemnon, then Iphigeneia. But this process fails: the play’s many and notorious changes of mind identify decision as the political act par excellence, but also represent the moment of decision as a madness (in Kierkegaard’s phrase), as the agent, far from generating his or her own act, is subsumed and obliterated by it. The dramatic aporia resolved by the character’s choice is merely shifted to that choice itself, which exposes the mysterious gap between praxis and prattōn. Moreover, to the extent that the play succeeds in suturing action to an agent, that individual agent – simultaneously savior and scapegoat – effaces the collective deliberation of democratic politics: real political agency is replaced by the fantasy of a super-subject who will act on behalf of and in place of the demos. Staging praxis as a problem, the play’s mimēsis becomes a meditation on the failure of political agency and of democratic politics
Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación
description Tragedy, Aristotle tells us, is a mimēsis of a praxis. Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis not only imitates an action: it is an exploration of the very possibility of action, both dramatic and political. Produced posthumously in the Spring of 405 BCE, the play is structured by aporia, a paralysis of political will that also paralyzes the plot and threatens to unwrite reality itself. The play attempts to loosen this bind by rooting political decision in the individual will of an autonomous agent, first Agamemnon, then Iphigeneia. But this process fails: the play’s many and notorious changes of mind identify decision as the political act par excellence, but also represent the moment of decision as a madness (in Kierkegaard’s phrase), as the agent, far from generating his or her own act, is subsumed and obliterated by it. The dramatic aporia resolved by the character’s choice is merely shifted to that choice itself, which exposes the mysterious gap between praxis and prattōn. Moreover, to the extent that the play succeeds in suturing action to an agent, that individual agent – simultaneously savior and scapegoat – effaces the collective deliberation of democratic politics: real political agency is replaced by the fantasy of a super-subject who will act on behalf of and in place of the demos. Staging praxis as a problem, the play’s mimēsis becomes a meditation on the failure of political agency and of democratic politics
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