Ugly Productions: An Aesthetics of Greek Drama
Ugly Productions: An Aesthetics of Greek Drama
by A. C. Duncan
University of Michigan Press, 2025
ISBNs
Cloth: 978-0-472-13359-8
eISBN: 978-0-472-90485-3 (OA)
About the Book
Amidst a culture otherwise obsessed with beauty, the Greek theater provided a unique space for Athenians to play with ugliness—to try these anti-ideals on for size. Such imaginative play was considered dangerous by some, such as Plato, who feared its corrupting influence; others, including Aristotle, saw the theater’s provocation and release of emotions as educational and even therapeutic. Sophocles’ and Euripides’ fifth-century audiences could not help but directly confront the ugliness of their drama, but as cultural memory of embodied productions faded, an abstracted contrast emerged between beautiful tragedy and ugly comedy—a pernicious aesthetic polarization that persists to this day. A. C. Duncan’s Ugly Productions embraces the materiality of the theater, arguing that dramatic aesthetics are best understood within affective frameworks where beauty or ugliness are produced through a dynamic interplay of verbal and visual modalities. Duncan reframes the Greek concept of “the ugly” not as mere “anti-beauty,” but as an affective disposition positively associated with such painful emotions as pity, fear, grief, and abjection.
Through studies of the figures of Xerxes, Electra, Philoctetes, Ajax, Heracles, and other tragic figures, Ugly Productions offers detailed analyses of the various ways ugliness was produced in performance with each chapter serving as an in-depth guide for studying the aesthetics of these works. Duncan confronts the historical neglect of ugliness in critical discourses, calling for a revaluation of negative aesthetics and renewed interest in the uglier aspects of these canonical works of theater.
Through studies of the figures of Xerxes, Electra, Philoctetes, Ajax, Heracles, and other tragic figures, Ugly Productions offers detailed analyses of the various ways ugliness was produced in performance with each chapter serving as an in-depth guide for studying the aesthetics of these works. Duncan confronts the historical neglect of ugliness in critical discourses, calling for a revaluation of negative aesthetics and renewed interest in the uglier aspects of these canonical works of theater.
About the Author
A. C. Duncan is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Reviews
“Ugly Productions is a beautiful book. Reading tragedy, and re-reading tragedy through comedy, Duncan startles us with the inescapable but often ignored ugliness of the tragic stage and its ragged, injured characters. With patient generosity, Duncan welcomes us into provocative, insightful critiques of Greek drama grounded in theories of affect, materialism, and cognition. A remarkable achievement.”— Matthew Farmer, Haverford College
“Ugly Productions is a rich, scholarly and incredibly wide-ranging monograph which will be of interest to scholars and students not only of ancient Greek drama and prose but also aesthetics, performance studies and philosophy.”
— Sarah Cullinan Herring, Comparative Drama“This provocative book foregrounds ugliness within the material aesthetics of Greek drama, a bold position that challenges the nobility Aristotle ascribes to tragic characters. Duncan moves from ‘ugly’ costumes on sympathetic characters to the spectacle of death and dying in Athens. Words, vision, and emotion intertwine to create a unified response that builds over the fifth century. While theoretically sophisticated, Ugly Productions remains approachable and informed by practical theater experience.”— C. W. Marshall FRSC, University of British Columbia
“This book advances an important thesis in ‘ugliness’ and offers a new and unique way to understand and analyze the aesthetics of Greek drama. It will be useful to scholars and graduate students of ancient drama, particularly those interested in production.”— Peter Meineck, New York University
"Arguing that tragedy has been interpreted excessively in terms of the beautiful, Duncan studies that many instances of ugliness (primarily as represented by the human body) in Greek drama...Duncan highlights a neglected topic and opens up new areas for research. Summing up: Recommended. Graduate students through faculty."— Choice
“With a solid critical apparatus, an extensive bibliography, and a detailed analytical index, Ugly Productions stands as an original and well-articulated contribution to the study of Greek drama, and it convincingly aligns with recent lines of research focused on the sensory, visual, and material dimensions of ancient culture.” [translated from Spanish]
— Marta Nicolás-Muelas, Mundos antiguos digitales
Tags
Aesthetics, Greece, Drama, Theater, Ancient & Classical, History & Criticism, Performing Arts, History and criticism, Literary Criticism, History
Open Access Information
License: CC BY-NC
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