Genos Dikanikon - Amateur and Professional Speech in the Courtrooms of Classical Athens

Erscheinungsjahr 2009
ISBN: 978-0-674-03203-3
Verlag: Harvard University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 33, 160 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 228 mm, Gewicht: 280 g

Reihe: Hellenic Studies Series

Under the Athenian democracy, litigants were expected to speak for themselves, though they could memorize a speech written for them. The texts of about one hundred judicial speeches of the genos dikanikon (the forensic genre) have survived, all attributed to Demosthenes or another of the ten writers of canonical status. These professionals wrote either for themselves or members of a small elite. Victor Bers argues that men too poor to afford a professionally written speech frequently spoke before judicial bodies in procedures crucial to their status, wealth, or even their lives, and that these amateur performances often manifested an unmanly yielding to emotions of anger or fear; professional speech, Bers seeks to demonstrate, was to a large degree crafted in reaction to amateur stumbling.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bers, Victor

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Griechische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Theatergeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Klassische Literaturwissenschaft

Über Autor(innen)

Bers, Victor
Victor Bers is Professor of Classics at Yale University.