Aeschylus' Oresteia, Silence, Criticism, Tragedy

grantor: University of TorontoIn a study of the poetic deployment of silence in Aeschylus' ' Oresteia', I identify a rhetorical form, which I call "silencing discourse," that is used by characters throughout the trilogy in order to prevent or ineffectuate dangerous utterances. I argue in particular that the behaviour and speech patterns of the chorus of the 'Agamemnon' can be characterised by a devoted commitment to silencing discourse and its semantic and semiotic structure. The structure of silencing discourse is then shown to be a major informing element in the staging and the narrative development of the trilogy, particularly in the manner in which Clytemnestra is staged during the parodos of the 'Agamemnon', but also in the characteristic staging of the 'Choephori' and the 'Eumenides'. Silencing discourse structures the relationship between Apollo and a series of "avenging" figures such as Clytemnestra and the Erinyes. However, Aeschylus intends a critique of the logic of silencing discourse: in his portrayal of Apollo, and then more extensively in his characterisation of the jury of Athenians in the 'Eumenides', Aeschylus introduces the notion of 'criticism' as a corrective to silencing discourse. In addition to providing a certain interpretation of the Athenian democracy, which I touch on lightly, criticism provides an explanation for the relationship between tragedy, or "tragic knowledge," in Jaspers' terms, and the tragic condition.Ph.D