Background
Slater, Niall Ward was born on August 19, 1954 in Massillon, Ohio, United States. Son of John Eick and Thelma Elizabeth Slater.
( Spectator Politics is the first major study of metathea...)
Spectator Politics is the first major study of metatheatre, or theatrically self-conscious performance, in Aristophanes. Using a reception-based performance criticism, Niall Slater elucidates the comic effectiveness of the earliest surviving comedies in the Western tradition. Slater demonstrates that Aristophanes employed metatheatre not simply to entertain but also to teach his audience how to read and interpret performance in other key public venues of the ancient democracy of Athens, such as performances in the political assembly and law courts. Aristophanes was, Slater contends, the first performance critic. Spectator Politics shows how Aristophanes' comedy served the Athenians by helping them to become active political participants, teaching them to see through deceptive performances, whether on stage or in the political sphere. His comedies use self-conscious performance to encourage the public to move out of the role of passive consumers of spectacle and to reengage the political process. Aristophanes' critique of performance prefigures much in the performance-dominated culture of the modern American political scene. Throughout, detailed readings of the original stagings illuminate the plays for today's audiences and performers, while Slater's cultural critique provides much for those interested in Athenian democracy and its lesson for the contemporary political scene. Spectator Politics offers a salutary demonstration of the power of art to expose and resist the performance powers of would-be demagogues.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812236521/?tag=2022091-20
(Plautus was Ancient Rome's greatest comic playwright, Sha...)
Plautus was Ancient Rome's greatest comic playwright, Shakespeare drew heavily on his plots, and his legacy is prevalent throughout modern drama. In this expanded edition of his successful book, one of America's foremost Classical scholars introduces performance criticism to the study of Plautus' ancient drama. In addition to the original detailed studies of six of the dramatists's plays, the methodology of performance criticism, the use of conventions, and the nature of comic heroism in Plautus, this edition includes new studies on: * the induction into the world of the play * the scripted imitation of improvisation * Plautus's comments on his previous work * the nature of 'tragicomedy'.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9057550377/?tag=2022091-20
Slater, Niall Ward was born on August 19, 1954 in Massillon, Ohio, United States. Son of John Eick and Thelma Elizabeth Slater.
Bachelor, College of Wooster, 1976. Master of Arts, Princeton University, 1978. Doctor of Philosophy, Princeton University, 1981.
Assistant professor classics Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, 1981-1982, University Southern California, Los Angeles, 1982-1987, associate professor classics, 1987-1990. Professor classics Emory University, Atlanta, since 1990.
(Plautus was Ancient Rome's greatest comic playwright, Sha...)
( Spectator Politics is the first major study of metathea...)
Member American Philological Association, Clare Hall Cambridge (life), Phi Beta Kappa (president since 2003).