Background
Segal, Charles Paul was born on March 19, 1936 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Robert and Gladys (Barsky) Segal.
(Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowle...)
Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge, 2/e, is an accessible yet in-depth literary study of Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus (Oedipus Rex)--the most famous Greek tragedy and one of the greatest masterpieces of world literature. This unique volume combines a close, scene-by-scene literary analysis of the text with an account of the play's historical, intellectual, social, and mythical background and also discusses the play's place in the development of the myth and its use of the theatrical conventions of Greek drama. Based on a fresh scrutiny of the Greek text, this book offers a contemporary literary interpretation of the play, including a readable, nontechnical discussion of its underlying moral and philosophical issues; the role of the gods; the interaction of character, fate, and chance; the problem of suffering and meaning; and Sophocles' conception of tragedy and tragic heroism. This lucid guide traces interpretations of the play from antiquity to modern times--from Aristotle to Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Lacan, Lévi-Strauss, Girard, and Vernant--and shows its central role in shaping the European conception of tragedy and modern notions of the self. This second edition draws on new approaches to the study of Greek tragedy; discusses the most recent interpretative scholarship on the play; and contains an annotated up-to-date bibliography. Ideal for courses in classical literature in translation, Greek drama, classical civilization, theater, and literature and arts, Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge, 2/e, will also reward general readers interested in literature and especially tragedy.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195133218/?tag=2022091-20
(In this landmark collection of essays, renowned classicis...)
In this landmark collection of essays, renowned classicist Charles Segal offers detailed analyses of major texts from archaic and early classical Greek poetry; in particular, works of Alcman, Mimnermus, Sappho, Pindar, Bacchylides, and Corinna. Segal provides close readings of the texts, and then studies the literary form and language of early Greek lyric, the poets' conception of their aims and their art, the use of mythical paradigms, and the relation of the poems to their social context. A recurrent theme is the recognition of the fragility and brevity of mortal happiness and the consciousness of how the immortality conferred by poetry resists the everthreatening presence of death and oblivion, fixing in permanent form the passing moments of joy and beauty. This is an essential book for students and scholars of ancient Greek poetry.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0847686175/?tag=2022091-20
( Drawing on comprehensive analyses of all of Sophocles’ ...)
Drawing on comprehensive analyses of all of Sophocles’ plays, on structuralist anthropology, and on other extensive work on myth and tragedy, Charles Segal examines Sophocles both as a great dramatic poet and as a serious thinker. He shows how Sophoclean tragedy reflects the human condition in its constant and tragic struggle for order and civilized life against the ever-present threat of savagery and chaotic violence, both within society and within the individual. For this edition Segal also provides a new preface discussing recent developments in the study of Sophocles.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806131365/?tag=2022091-20
(Charles Segal surveys the literary treatment of the Orphe...)
Charles Segal surveys the literary treatment of the Orpheus myth as the myth of the essence of poetry - the ability to encounter the fullest possible intensity of beauty and sorrow and to transform them into song. The first half of the book concentrates on the ancient literary tradition, from the myth's Greek origins through the influential poetic versions of Ovid and Virgil and its treatment by other Latin authors such as Horace and Seneca. Later chapters focus on the continuities of the myth in modern literature, including the poetry of H.D., Rukeyser, Rich, Ashbery, and, especially, Rilke. Segal's leitmotif throughout is the relation of poetry to art, love and death, the "three points of the Orphic triangle". Through close readings of individual texts, he shows how various versions of the myth oscillate between a poetry of transcendence that asserts its power over the necessities of nature - including the ultimate necessity, death - and a poetry that celebrates its immersion in the stream of life.
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(One of the special charms of the Odyssey, according to Ch...)
One of the special charms of the Odyssey, according to Charles Segal, is the way it transports readers to fascinating places. Yet despite the appeal of its narrative, the Odyssey is fully understood only when its style, design, and mythical patterns are taken into account as well. Bringing a new richness to interpretation of this epic, Segal looks closely at key forms of social and personal organization which Odysseus encounters in his voyages. Segal also considers such topics as the relationship between bard and audience, the implications of the Odyssey's self-consciousness about its own poetics, and Homer's treatment of the nature of poetry.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801487269/?tag=2022091-20
( In a fresh interpretation of Lucretius's On the Nature ...)
In a fresh interpretation of Lucretius's On the Nature of Things, Charles Segal reveals this great poetical account of Epicurean philosophy as an important and profound document for the history of Western attitudes toward death. He shows that this poem, aimed at promoting spiritual tranquillity, confronts two anxieties about death not addressed in Epicurus's abstract treatment--the fear of the process of dying and the fear of nothingness. Lucretius, Segal argues, deals more specifically with the body in dying because he draws on the Roman concern with corporeality as well as on the rich traditions of epic and tragic poetry on mortality. Segal explains how Lucretius's sensitivity to the vulnerability of the body's boundaries connects the deaths of individuals with the deaths of worlds, thereby placing human death into the poem's larger context of creative and destructive energies in the universe. The controversial ending of the poem, which describes the plague at Athens, is thus the natural culmination of a theme developed over the course of the work. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
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( Where is the pleasure in tragedy? This question, how su...)
Where is the pleasure in tragedy? This question, how suffering and sorrow become the stuff of aesthetic delight, is at the center of Charles Segal's new book, which collects and expands his recent explorations of Euripides' art. Alcestis, Hippolytus, and Hecuba, the three early plays interpreted here, are linked by common themes of violence, death, lamentation and mourning, and by their implicit definitions of male and female roles. Segal shows how these plays draw on ancient traditions of poetic and ritual commemoration, particularly epic song, and at the same time refashion these traditions into new forms. In place of the epic muse of martial glory, Euripides, Segal argues, evokes a muse of sorrows who transforms the suffering of individuals into a "common grief for all the citizens," a community of shared feeling in the theater. Like his predecessors in tragedy, Euripides believes death, more than any other event, exposes the deepest truth of human nature. Segal examines the revealing final moments in Alcestis, Hippolytus, and Hecuba, and discusses the playwright's use of these deaths--especially those of women--to question traditional values and the familiar definitions of male heroism. Focusing on gender, the affective dimension of tragedy, and ritual mourning and commemoration, Segal develops and extends his earlier work on Greek drama. The result deepens our understanding of Euripides' art and of tragedy itself.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/082231360X/?tag=2022091-20
Segal, Charles Paul was born on March 19, 1936 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Robert and Gladys (Barsky) Segal.
AB, Harvard University, 1957. Doctor of Philosophy, Harvard University, 1961. AM (honorary), Brown University, 1969.
Teaching fellow, classics tutor Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1959-1961, instructor, 1963-1964. Assistant to associate professor classics University Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1964-1967, chairman classics graduate studies, 1967. Associate professor to professor Brown University, Providence, 1968-1978, professor classics and comparative literature, 1978-1986, chairman classics department, 1978-1981, Benedict professor classics, professor comparative literature, 1980-1986.
Professor classics comparative literature Princeton University, 1987-1990. Professor Greek and Latin Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990-1996, Walter C. Klein professor classics, from 1996. Junior fellow Center for Hellenic Studies, 1967-1968.
Visiting professor Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies, Rome, 1970-1972, Brandeis University, 1974. Visiting director Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris, 1975-1976. Fulbright exchange lecturer University Melbourne, Australia, 1978.
Visiting professor Greek, Columbia University, New York City, 1979. Participant 1st and 2d Soviet/American Semiotics Colloquia, American Council Learned Socs./Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Academy of Sciences, 1980, 83. Consultant in field; member jury Classical School American Academy Rome, 1972-1974, resident in classics, spring, 1986.
Member executive council Center Semiotics, Brown University, 1979-1985, chairman curriculum revision committee, 1982-1984.
(Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowle...)
(In this landmark collection of essays, renowned classicis...)
( Drawing on comprehensive analyses of all of Sophocles’ ...)
( In a fresh interpretation of Lucretius's On the Nature ...)
( Where is the pleasure in tragedy? This question, how su...)
(Charles Segal surveys the literary treatment of the Orphe...)
(One of the special charms of the Odyssey, according to Ch...)
Member jury Classical School American Academy Rome, 1972-1974, residentin classics, spring 1986. Member executive council Center Semiotics, Brown University, 1979-1985. Fellow American Academy Arts and Sciences.
Member American Philological Association (board dirs.1982-1986, president 1994), Societa Italiana per lo Studio dell" AntichitaClassica (honorary), Virgilian Society, Classical Association New England, Internat.Ovid Society.
Married Esther Rogers, December 20, 1961 (divorced June 1979). Children: Joshua H., Thaddeus G. Married Nancy Ann Jones, January 9, 1988.
1 child, Cora M.