- 3317 Bate Building
Dept. Foreign Languages and Literatures
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858
John Given
East Carolina University, Foreign Languages and Literatures, Faculty Member
- Classics, Theatre Studies, Drama, Theatre, Greek Tragedy, Ancient Greek Tragedy and its Reception, and 22 moreGreek Comedy, Musical Theatre, Latin, Greek, Ancient Greek Religion, Aristophanes, Aristophanes Lysistrata, Stephen Sondheim, Aristophanes Frogs, Ancient History, Classical Archaeology, Euripides, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides Medea, Performing Arts, Ancient Greek History, Greek Literature, Latin Literature, Classical Reception Studies, Ancient Greek Comedy, and Ancient Greek and Roman Theatreedit
A new translation of Priscus of Panion, who narrated the rise and fall of Attila's empire, alongside other political and military events of the 430s to 470s. The translation is aimed at students and the general public. Priscus's text... more
A new translation of Priscus of Panion, who narrated the rise and fall of Attila's empire, alongside other political and military events of the 430s to 470s. The translation is aimed at students and the general public. Priscus's text survives only in (substantial) fragments that were quoted by other ancient writers. This volume contains a full introduction to Priscus, the survival of his text, and his classicizing historiography. The translation itself includes brief historical background notes to orient the reader where portions of Priscus's text have been lost.
Research Interests:
This chapter analyzes the reception of Aristophanes' comedies in American musical theatre productions from the middle of the 20th century. It focuses on three productions: the touring Moscow Art Theatre Musical Studio "Lysistrata," the... more
This chapter analyzes the reception of Aristophanes' comedies in American musical theatre productions from the middle of the 20th century. It focuses on three productions: the touring Moscow Art Theatre Musical Studio "Lysistrata," the musical "The Happiest Girl in the World" by E. Y. Harburg (with music adapted from the works of Jacques Offenbach) and Al Carmines's Off-Off-Broadway "Peace". The chapter analyzes how Aristophanes was received in the terms of 20th-century musicals.
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Surprisingly few gods appear in the eleven surviving comedies of Aristophanes. This article examines what roles the gods do play when they are present. It further argues that humans with divine attributes often appear in lieu of the gods... more
Surprisingly few gods appear in the eleven surviving comedies of Aristophanes. This article examines what roles the gods do play when they are present. It further argues that humans with divine attributes often appear in lieu of the gods themselves. These humans, together with the handful of gods who are present, fall into the broad functional categories of helpers and opponents of the comic protagonist. The gods' absence is to be attributed to an Aristophanic conception of human agency, namely that humans in comedy, especially when compared to tragedy, have extraordinary control of their lives. A god's presence would be too great a threat to comic inventiveness.
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"This article interprets Agathon’s speech of self-justification in light of its dramaturgical functions within the prologue of Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae. Agathon refutes Inlaw’s charges of homosexual effeminacy by outlining a theory... more
"This article interprets Agathon’s speech of self-justification in light of its dramaturgical functions within the prologue of Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae. Agathon refutes Inlaw’s charges of homosexual effeminacy by outlining a theory of poetic composition according to which the poet changes his nature to create in himself the qualities of his characters and plays. The speech simultaneously works against Agathon’s self-justification by portraying the tragedian as an elite intellectual whose theories are only valid within his own isolation."
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In Euripides’ Medea, Medea’s hesitation to kill her children in her deliberative monologue is startling in its new concern for a mother’s love for her children. This paper examines how motherhood is constructed in the tragedy up to the... more
In Euripides’ Medea, Medea’s hesitation to kill her children in her deliberative monologue is startling in its new concern for a mother’s love for her children. This paper examines how motherhood is constructed in the tragedy up to the monologue. I argue that Jason and Medea both see motherhood primarily as a familial role, albeit a role with different emphases. The Nurse, in contrast, has a primarily affective view of the mother-child relationship. The monologue brings these two views into conflict.
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The author details his approach, as director, to bringing Lysistrata's "Reconciliation scene" to a contemporary audience by having Lysistrata herself metatheatrically step into the role of Reconciliation.
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An examination of how Nathan Lane, as playwright and actor, created his role of Dionysus in the 2004 Broadway production of the Stephen Sondheim / Burt Shevelove musical "The Frogs," based on Aristophanes' comedy of the same name.
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The formal structures of Greek Old Comedy (namely, Aristophanes) and the American concept musical (such as "Company," "Pippin" and "A Chorus Line") are strikingly similar. Both utilize an episodic organization in lieu of the... more
The formal structures of Greek Old Comedy (namely, Aristophanes) and the American concept musical (such as "Company," "Pippin" and "A Chorus Line") are strikingly similar. Both utilize an episodic organization in lieu of the cause-and-effect narrative so prevalent in Greek tragedy and in musicals in the tradition of Rodgers and Hammerstein. This paper argues that, while neither genre fully abandons a linear plot, each takes advantage of narrative discontinuities to construct character identity against audience expectations for coherence.
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Research Interests: Roman Comedy and Plautus
"Murder your father. Marry your mother. Find yourself." Three-performance run of Sophocles' tragedy, with an all-student cast at East Carolina University, with original music composed by Dr. Mark Richardson. Select scenes re-staged at... more
"Murder your father. Marry your mother. Find yourself." Three-performance run of Sophocles' tragedy, with an all-student cast at East Carolina University, with original music composed by Dr. Mark Richardson. Select scenes re-staged at Classics Day at University of North Carolina-Greensboro, October 2013.
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Staged reading of Euripides' drama, directed by Mary-Kay Gamel. Performed at the Feminism and Classics conference at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada in May 2012. Re-staged at the American Philological Association... more
Staged reading of Euripides' drama, directed by Mary-Kay Gamel. Performed at the Feminism and Classics conference at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada in May 2012. Re-staged at the American Philological Association conference in Seattle, Washington in January 2013.
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World premiere live performance. "A Thousand Kisses" is a radio play by Frederic Raphael, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter, playwright and novelist, author of films from Darling (with Julie Christie,1965) and Two for the Road... more
World premiere live performance. "A Thousand Kisses" is a radio play by Frederic Raphael, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter, playwright and novelist, author of films from Darling (with Julie Christie,1965) and Two for the Road (Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney, 1967) to Eyes Wide Shut (Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, directed by Stanley Kubrick, 1999). Built around Catullus's now beautiful, now obscene poetry, the play tells the story of Gaius Valerius CATULLUS's love affair with Clodia, the most beautiful woman in Rome, whom Catullus called "Lesbia" in his torrid poetry. Featuring luminaries of Ancient Rome like Cicero and Julius Caesar, the play brings to life the complex world of patrician Rome as the backdrop for one of the world's most famous romances.
Research Interests: Roman poetry and Catullus
Research Interests:
Staged reading of the operetta, with new music by Alan Riley Jones, directed by John H. Starks, Jr. Performed at the American Philological Association conference as the annual production sponsored by the Committee on Ancient and Modern... more
Staged reading of the operetta, with new music by Alan Riley Jones, directed by John H. Starks, Jr. Performed at the American Philological Association conference as the annual production sponsored by the Committee on Ancient and Modern Performance.