- Durham, United Kingdom.
Oliver Baldwin
Durham University, Classics and Ancient History, Faculty Member
- University of Reading, Department of Classics, Department Memberadd
- Greek Architecture, Latin poetry, Roman Britain, Greek Theatre, Spanish History, Ancient Greek Tragedy and its Reception, and 18 moreClassical Reception Studies, Reception Studies, Ancient Greek and Roman Theatre, Ancient Greek History, Ancient myth and religion, Media and Cultural Studies, Greek Tragedy, Roman History, Contemporary History of Spain, Roman Spain, Spanish Literature, Classical, Latin Literature (in Classics) - Seneca, Medea, Medea and women in mythology, Medea In the Eighteenth Century, Seneca's Tragedies, and Senecaedit
Oliver Baldwin situates Rhesus, a “Euripidean” (or *Euripidean) work of uncertain date and authorship, a work of reception folded into the corpus of the “original,” within queer understandings of immaturity and belatedness. He... more
Oliver Baldwin situates Rhesus, a “Euripidean” (or *Euripidean) work of uncertain date and authorship, a work of reception folded into the corpus of the “original,” within queer understandings of immaturity and belatedness. He demonstrates how the nocturnal setting of the play and the alternative futurity of Rhesus himself contribute to the drama’s unsettling unknowability—a quality that makes it both alien to and ideal for this volume on Euripidean queerness.
Research Interests:
Abstract In 1981, the Spanish playwright Luis Riaza published the play Medea es un buen chico (Medea is a Good Boy). In it, two male actors perform the main roles of Medea and the Nurse, who comment, with references to other fictional... more
Abstract
In 1981, the Spanish playwright Luis Riaza published the play Medea es un buen chico (Medea is a Good Boy). In it, two male actors perform the main roles of Medea and the Nurse, who comment, with references to other fictional love stories, on the relationship between Medea and Jason. When Jason fails to arrive, the fiction is dismantled, revealing Medea’s identity as Jason’s rejected homosexual lover. Medea es un buen chico mixes elements of performativity, meta-theatricality, and myth in order to explore the limits of gender, sexuality, and the perceived social roles and norms they entail. This article explores how Riaza theatrically reflects on the social performativity of gender through the tragic character and story of Medea, her performance and subversion of her own gendered self, and her eventual rejection and social displacement.
In 1981, the Spanish playwright Luis Riaza published the play Medea es un buen chico (Medea is a Good Boy). In it, two male actors perform the main roles of Medea and the Nurse, who comment, with references to other fictional love stories, on the relationship between Medea and Jason. When Jason fails to arrive, the fiction is dismantled, revealing Medea’s identity as Jason’s rejected homosexual lover. Medea es un buen chico mixes elements of performativity, meta-theatricality, and myth in order to explore the limits of gender, sexuality, and the perceived social roles and norms they entail. This article explores how Riaza theatrically reflects on the social performativity of gender through the tragic character and story of Medea, her performance and subversion of her own gendered self, and her eventual rejection and social displacement.
Research Interests:
Throughout the 19th century, Europe underwent processes of profound national reconfiguration, which provoked the creation of modern nation-states and nationalism. As other European countries, Spain also resorted to the re-appropriation of... more
Throughout the 19th century, Europe underwent processes of profound national reconfiguration, which provoked the creation of modern nation-states and nationalism. As other European countries, Spain also resorted to the re-appropriation of Greco-Roman antiquity in order to reaffirm its national narrative of identity after its own national crisis, the so-called Disaster of 1898, with which Spain lost its overseas empire. Seneca appeared at this time as the embodiment of the Spanish Volks-geist, the spirit of the Spanish people and nation, in Angel Ganivet's Idearium espa-ñol, first published in 1897. This article shall explore how Seneca was conceived, and later re-appropriated and reshaped, as the embodiment of Spanishness, by intellectual and political circles of a nation in mid-reconfiguration. Through an analysis of Ganivet's theory of senequismo and its influence on Spanish historiography, thought and culture during the early 20th century, we shall be able to better ascertain the cultural, historic and social impact in Spain of Angel Ganivet's statement that 'Seneca is not a Spaniard, a son of Spain, by chance, he is a Spaniard in essence'.
Research Interests: Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Spanish Literature, Classics, Historiography, and 14 moreNationalism, Seneca, Classical Reception Studies, Reception of Antiquity, Spain, María Zambrano, Volksgeist, Miguel de Unamuno, Second Spanish Republic, Ramiro de Maeztu, Ramón Pérez de Ayala, Crisis 1898, History of Spanish Thought, and Ángel Ganivet y el 98
La Ilíada de Homero es uno de los textos fundacionales de la literatura occidental. En la historia de nuestra cultura, Ilión se alza como el campo de batalla por excelencia, como instrumento de análisis privilegiado, en el que revivir los... more
La Ilíada de Homero es uno de los textos fundacionales de la literatura occidental. En la historia de nuestra cultura, Ilión se alza como el campo de batalla por excelencia, como instrumento de análisis privilegiado, en el que revivir los desastres, el horror y la deshumanización de todas las guerras. Baste con recordar la conexión propuesta por Gilbert Murray (1905) entre Las Troyanas de Eurípides (415 a. C.) y el relato de lo acontecido en el Desastre de Melos (416 a. C.), narrado por Tucídides en su Historia de la Guerra del Peloponeso (V, 84-116). Más recientemente, la Guerra en Siria ha reavivado el interés por el conflicto bélico que enfrentó a griegos y a troyano, como demuestra la puesta en escena en Londres de Queens of Syria (2016), versión de Las Troyanas de Eurípides, cuyas actrices fueron refugiadas sirias. El presente artículo pretende explorar dicha reflexión y crítica antibelicista en una relaboración reciente de tema troyano: Ilíada, escrita por Guillem Clua y producida en Madrid por La Joven Compañía, dentro de su Proyecto Homero (2016), junto a Odisea de Alberto Conejero. Mediante referencias al texto, la puesta en escena, fuentes antiguas o recepciones posteriores, se explorará cómo Ilíada de Clua disecciona los horrores de la guerra en cuatro líneas temáticas: el contra-heroísmo, el lamento, la muerte y la eternidad de la guerra. La escenografía, el uso de pañuelos palestinos y ropas negras, las proyecciones de un bombardeo y las palabras de dolor y horror de sus protagonistas, ayudarán a entender de qué manera Ilíada de Guillem Clua y La Joven Compañía responde a la pregunta de Héctor al final de la obra: “¿Qué hay de heroico en todo eso?”.
Research Interests:
On 18 June 1933, one of the most important events in Spanish theatrical history took place before an audience of 3,000 spectators in the ruins of the Roman Theatre in Mérida. Translated into Spanish by philosopher Miguel de Unamuno,... more
On 18 June 1933, one of the most important events in Spanish theatrical history took place before an audience of 3,000 spectators in the ruins of the Roman Theatre in Mérida. Translated into Spanish by philosopher Miguel de Unamuno, staged by the renowned Xirgu-Borràs Company and funded by the government, the performance of Seneca's Medea was a triumph of republican culture and widely hailed for its new dramatic and scenic languages.
This book provides the most detailed reconstruction of this pivotal production to date, setting it in context and analysing its origin and legacy. Early twentieth-century intellectuals considered Seneca, 'the philosopher from Córdoba', the epitome of Spanishness and the first in an illustrious line of playwrights stretching from Spain's Roman Antiquity to its Silver Age. His play was seen as the ideal vehicle to showcase the Second Spanish Republic's cultural, social and educational agenda but provoked a furious backlash from opponents to the government's progressive programme. The book shows how the performance became a cultural ritual which stood at the centre of critical discussions on national identity, politics, secularism, women's rights and new European aesthetics of theatre-making. Based on extensive archival research and containing rare and previously unpublished photos, it will be of interest to theatre historians, scholars of Classical Reception and historians of the Second Spanish Republic.
This book provides the most detailed reconstruction of this pivotal production to date, setting it in context and analysing its origin and legacy. Early twentieth-century intellectuals considered Seneca, 'the philosopher from Córdoba', the epitome of Spanishness and the first in an illustrious line of playwrights stretching from Spain's Roman Antiquity to its Silver Age. His play was seen as the ideal vehicle to showcase the Second Spanish Republic's cultural, social and educational agenda but provoked a furious backlash from opponents to the government's progressive programme. The book shows how the performance became a cultural ritual which stood at the centre of critical discussions on national identity, politics, secularism, women's rights and new European aesthetics of theatre-making. Based on extensive archival research and containing rare and previously unpublished photos, it will be of interest to theatre historians, scholars of Classical Reception and historians of the Second Spanish Republic.
Research Interests: Cultural History, Classics, Theatre Studies, Theatre History, Political Science, and 15 moreFascism, Nationalism, Spanish Theatre, Spanish History, Latin Literature (in Classics) - Seneca, Classical Reception Studies, Ancient Greek and Roman Theatre, Spain, Hispanic Studies, Medea, Seneca's Tragedies, Miguel de Unamuno, Second Spanish Republic, Mérida, and Segunda República y Guerra Civil Española
Oliver Baldwin situates Rhesus, a “Euripidean” (or *Euripidean) work of uncertain date and authorship, a work of reception folded into the corpus of the “original,” within queer understandings of immaturity and belatedness. He... more
Oliver Baldwin situates Rhesus, a “Euripidean” (or *Euripidean) work of uncertain date and authorship, a work of reception folded into the corpus of the “original,” within queer understandings of immaturity and belatedness. He demonstrates how the nocturnal setting of the play and the alternative futurity of Rhesus himself contribute to the drama’s unsettling unknowability—a quality that makes it both alien to and ideal for this volume on Euripidean queerness.
Research Interests:
Resumen. Las ideas de Friedrich Nietzsche en El nacimiento de la tragedia (1872) tuvieron gran impacto en el teatro vanguardista europeo de principios del siglo xx. Coro, música, movimiento y masas emergieron como fórmulas para conseguir... more
Resumen. Las ideas de Friedrich Nietzsche en El nacimiento de la tragedia (1872) tuvieron gran impacto en el teatro vanguardista europeo de principios del siglo xx. Coro, música, movimiento y masas emergieron como fórmulas para conseguir la deseada disolución dionisíaca del individuo dentro de una unidad colectiva y, en último término, universal.
La presente comunicación explora la aplicación del elemento dionisíaco trágico en la representación de Medea, de Séneca, en el Teatro Romano de Mérida, en 1933. En concreto, se analizarán tres elementos utilizados por su director, Cipriano Rivas Cherif, en la representación emeritense: movimiento, música y colectividad; pues su combinación persiguió la reconstrucción de la experiencia trágica antigua a través de lo dionisíaco y su resultado último: la desintegración de la individualidad en la colectividad y la universalidad trágica. Se podrá así demostrar cómo la representación de la tragedia Medea de Séneca en 1933 aparece en la historia del teatro europeo, y más específicamente en la historia de la recepción dramática de la tragedia greco-romana, como uno de los grandes espectáculos dionisíacos jamás realizados.
Abstract. Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideas in The Birth of Tragedy (1872) greatly impacted on avant-garde European theatre in the early 20th century. Chorus, music, movement and on-stage masses emerged as formulas to achieve the desired Dionysian dissolution of the individual within a collective, and ultimately universal, unity.
The present paper explores the application of the Dionysian element in the production of Seneca’s Medea, at the Roman Theatre in Mérida, in 1933. Specifically, three elements used by its director, Cipriano Rivas Cherif, will be analysed: movement, music and collectivity. Their combination aimed towards a reconstruction of the ancient tragic experience through the Dionysian and its ultimate result: the disintegration of individuality within the collective and tragic universality. This paper will thus demonstrate how the 1933 Spanish performance of Seneca’s tragedy Medea appears in the history of European theatre, and more specifically in the history of the dramatic reception of Greco-Roman tragedy, as one of the great Dionysian spectacles ever performed.
La presente comunicación explora la aplicación del elemento dionisíaco trágico en la representación de Medea, de Séneca, en el Teatro Romano de Mérida, en 1933. En concreto, se analizarán tres elementos utilizados por su director, Cipriano Rivas Cherif, en la representación emeritense: movimiento, música y colectividad; pues su combinación persiguió la reconstrucción de la experiencia trágica antigua a través de lo dionisíaco y su resultado último: la desintegración de la individualidad en la colectividad y la universalidad trágica. Se podrá así demostrar cómo la representación de la tragedia Medea de Séneca en 1933 aparece en la historia del teatro europeo, y más específicamente en la historia de la recepción dramática de la tragedia greco-romana, como uno de los grandes espectáculos dionisíacos jamás realizados.
Abstract. Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideas in The Birth of Tragedy (1872) greatly impacted on avant-garde European theatre in the early 20th century. Chorus, music, movement and on-stage masses emerged as formulas to achieve the desired Dionysian dissolution of the individual within a collective, and ultimately universal, unity.
The present paper explores the application of the Dionysian element in the production of Seneca’s Medea, at the Roman Theatre in Mérida, in 1933. Specifically, three elements used by its director, Cipriano Rivas Cherif, will be analysed: movement, music and collectivity. Their combination aimed towards a reconstruction of the ancient tragic experience through the Dionysian and its ultimate result: the disintegration of individuality within the collective and tragic universality. This paper will thus demonstrate how the 1933 Spanish performance of Seneca’s tragedy Medea appears in the history of European theatre, and more specifically in the history of the dramatic reception of Greco-Roman tragedy, as one of the great Dionysian spectacles ever performed.
Research Interests:
In the 16th century, Fernando Colombus, the son of Christopher Colombus, noted on the margin of the verses 375 to 379 of his copy of Seneca's Medea the following reminder: ‘This prophecy was fulfilled by my father the admiral Christopher... more
In the 16th century, Fernando Colombus, the son of Christopher Colombus, noted on the margin of the verses 375 to 379 of his copy of Seneca's Medea the following reminder: ‘This prophecy was fulfilled by my father the admiral Christopher Colombus in the year 1492’. The prophecy he refers to, voiced by the chorus, reads: ‘There will come an age in the far-off years/ when Ocean shall unloose the bonds of things,/ when the whole broad earth shall be revealed,/ when Tethys shall disclose new worlds/ and Thule not be the limit of the lands’. Fernando Colombus, and his contemporaries, understood that Seneca was here foretelling Christopher Colombus’ journey into unknown waters, discovering a land beyond that known to western culture: America. This thus became the origins of a tight link between Medea, as participant in the quest for the Golden Fleece, the Argonauts and the imperial might of Spain.
In order to establish this imperial link between Medea, the Argonauts and the conquest of the New World this chapter explores its reception at the zenith of Spain’s imperial power in the 17th century. To do so it principally focuses on Spain’s most renowned artistic production, Golden Age Theatre, by analysing Medea's portrayal and role in Lope de Vega’s El Vellocino de Oro (1622) and Calderón de la Barca's Los tres mayores prodigios (1636) and El Divino Jason (c.1630). These three plays will help to reconstruct Medea and the Argonaut’s utility for the imperial narrative in 17th-century Spain and beyond.
In order to establish this imperial link between Medea, the Argonauts and the conquest of the New World this chapter explores its reception at the zenith of Spain’s imperial power in the 17th century. To do so it principally focuses on Spain’s most renowned artistic production, Golden Age Theatre, by analysing Medea's portrayal and role in Lope de Vega’s El Vellocino de Oro (1622) and Calderón de la Barca's Los tres mayores prodigios (1636) and El Divino Jason (c.1630). These three plays will help to reconstruct Medea and the Argonaut’s utility for the imperial narrative in 17th-century Spain and beyond.
Research Interests: Spanish Literature, Classics, Drama, Colonialism, Spanish History, and 14 moreSeneca, Greek Myth, Classical Reception Studies, Euripides, Theatre, Lope de Vega, Medea, Pedro Calderon De La Barca, Spanish Golden Age, Spanish Empire, Colonial Latin America, Spanish conquest of the Americas, Spanish Golden Age Drama, Argonauts, and Colombus
On the 18th of June 1933, the Roman Theatre in Mérida, once the Roman Emerita Augusta, witnessed the performance of Seneca’s Medea by Spain’s leading theatrical company, the Xirgu-Borràs Company. This crucial event was attended by the... more
On the 18th of June 1933, the Roman Theatre in Mérida, once the Roman Emerita Augusta, witnessed the performance of Seneca’s Medea by Spain’s leading theatrical company, the Xirgu-Borràs Company. This crucial event was attended by the Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic alongside two ministers, the Ambassador of Italy, many MPs and a great number of intellectuals. At the Roman Theatre they joined many men and women of Mérida and the surrounding region of Extremadura to witness a performance and cultural republican ritual that has remained inscribed in Spain’s cultural and social memory.
This production of Seneca's Medea in republican Spain stood at the centre of pivotal discussions on issues such as national identity, national reconfiguration, regime building, socialist, liberal and fascist ideologies, secularism, Women's Rights and new European aesthetics of theatre making. This thesis intends to explore, analyse, clarify and understand this.
It is divided into five chapters. The first reconstructs what took place in Mérida on the 18th of June 1933, the day of the performance of Seneca's Medea, its genesis and impact. It is the most detailed reconstruction of the performance of Seneca's Medea in 1933 Spain to date. Chapter II answers the integral question of the contemporary Spanish understanding of Seneca. This is explored by assessing the previous knowledge and reception of Seneca until 1933, its shift in perception towards a reappraisal of Seneca's tragic credentials and its role within a broader discourse of republican national identity. Chapter III analyses how Seneca's Medea fits into the active development of such a republican identity: the national reconfiguration in the building of the republican regime. It does this by reassessing the production of Seneca's Medea within the frame of the Republic's cultural and educational agenda, its promotion of republican citizenship and the creation of a National Theatre. Chapter IV discusses the implications and responses provoked by the performance on the republican secularisation of Spain and the development of constitutional rights for women. Finally, Chapter V establishes the 1933 production of Seneca's Medea in Spain as an essential example of the broader aesthetic movement of theatrical renewal that had spread throughout Europe and revolutionised the stage. This thesis demonstrates that the ancient tragedy Medea, by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, served as an essential tool to reassess, redress and reconfigure fundamental ideological, national, cultural, political, civic and aesthetic questions of the Second Spanish Republic.
This production of Seneca's Medea in republican Spain stood at the centre of pivotal discussions on issues such as national identity, national reconfiguration, regime building, socialist, liberal and fascist ideologies, secularism, Women's Rights and new European aesthetics of theatre making. This thesis intends to explore, analyse, clarify and understand this.
It is divided into five chapters. The first reconstructs what took place in Mérida on the 18th of June 1933, the day of the performance of Seneca's Medea, its genesis and impact. It is the most detailed reconstruction of the performance of Seneca's Medea in 1933 Spain to date. Chapter II answers the integral question of the contemporary Spanish understanding of Seneca. This is explored by assessing the previous knowledge and reception of Seneca until 1933, its shift in perception towards a reappraisal of Seneca's tragic credentials and its role within a broader discourse of republican national identity. Chapter III analyses how Seneca's Medea fits into the active development of such a republican identity: the national reconfiguration in the building of the republican regime. It does this by reassessing the production of Seneca's Medea within the frame of the Republic's cultural and educational agenda, its promotion of republican citizenship and the creation of a National Theatre. Chapter IV discusses the implications and responses provoked by the performance on the republican secularisation of Spain and the development of constitutional rights for women. Finally, Chapter V establishes the 1933 production of Seneca's Medea in Spain as an essential example of the broader aesthetic movement of theatrical renewal that had spread throughout Europe and revolutionised the stage. This thesis demonstrates that the ancient tragedy Medea, by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, served as an essential tool to reassess, redress and reconfigure fundamental ideological, national, cultural, political, civic and aesthetic questions of the Second Spanish Republic.