A Risk Society
Between Tragedy and Horror
A series of webinars attempt to combine the two genres
Held by the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation
From September 17th to September 21st
A series of webinars regarding Ancient Greek Drama is organized by the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation from September 17th to September 21st,, making interesting social, cultural, and historical allusions and subtle, indirect references to the challenges of the modern era. From climate change to the COVID pandemic, from terror attacks and slaughtering to the outbreak of violence the 21st century vindicates German sociologist Ulrich Beck’s approach, generating the term “risk society”.
For the first time in recent years, a group of 22 scholars from some of the most prestigious and Ivy League universities in the world, such as McGill University, University of British Columbia, University of California Berkley, University of California Santa Cruz, University of Edinburgh, etc. is meeting in Athens on the initiative of the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, to discuss the relevance between tragedy and horror. “Between Tragedy and Horror” will be the ninth edition in the “Ancient Drama” event series hosted by the Cacoyannis Foundation, and the first to be curated in partnership with scholars based in a Canadian institution, McGill, giving us a unique opportunity to bring Canadian perspectives on ancient Greek tragedy to a wider international audience. The event in Athens will feature five, four-hour hybrid ‘webinars’ over five days, each on a theme, featuring three or four speakers giving 45-minute presentations, with extra time built in for discussion.
The webinars attempt to explore the affective and aesthetic connections between ancient Greek tragedy and contemporary horror media, bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives from Canadian and international scholars working in the theoretical spaces where the genres overlap.
The goals of the event are to examine, through classical philology, performance studies, performance practice, cognitive studies, and media studies, how affective and aesthetic connections between ancient Greek tragedy and contemporary horror can allow us to understand better and engage both genres. Also, to showcase new cutting-edge research from both emerging and established scholars, which can, for the first time, explore the connective potentials between these genres, and bring diverse disciplinary perspectives into dialogue.
The program aims to foreground, in an international setting, the rich and varied work of emerging and established Canadian scholars and Canadian artists working in the performing arts who are responding to these genres. Also, to provide student mentorship and inclusion at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, providing unique learning experiences for students participating in the Athens workshops and professional, transferable skills and publication possibilities to students presenting and contributing to the research-creation workshops.
Furthermore, the goals of the program are to publish research results in an open-access edited volume and also to reach a wider public of artists, activists, and citizens with questions of how effectively engaging these affective genres can address contemporary global crises.
Since 2012 the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation has been implementing an EU program on Ancient Drama in collaboration with acknowledged Academic Institutions, such as Stanford University, the University of Leeds, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Helsinki Academy in partnership with the Aalto College of Art and Design, la Fundación de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the LabexArts-H2H (ArTeC) – Département Arts et Technologies de l’Image, Université Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis, the Forum Internationale Wissenschaft of the University of Bonn and more.
The program activates and presents interdisciplinary synergies related to Ancient Drama and aims to promote the dialogue and enhance the way ancient drama is presented through performing arts in the 21st century.
This year, the MCF is implementing the project titled “Ancient Drama: Interdisciplinary and Cross Art Approaches”, included in the Partnership Agreement 2021-2027, co-funded by the European Union.
Apply for participation in this mailing address adrama@mcf.gr.
Ancient Drama: Between Tragedy and Horror
Organised by Lynn Kozak and Eric Lewis in collaboration with the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, with the support by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Tuesday, September 17th, 2024:
Webinar 1 Euripidean Horror, Chair, Lynn Kozak, 11h-15h
11h-11h45 K.O. Chong-Gossard (University of Melbourne, virtual), “Horror in Euripides”
11h50-12h35 Julianna Will, (Memorial University), “The Bacchae and Queer Horror: Count Dracula, Oliver Quick, and the Yellowjackets”
12h35-13h25 BREAK
13h25-14h10 Judith Fletcher, (Laurier University),“Becoming Mother in Euripides’ Bacchae and Hitchcock’s Psycho”
14h15h-15h Marios Kallos, (University of British Columbia),““. . . her flesh dropped from her bones”: The politics of horror in Euripides’ Medea and the modern stage”
Wednesday, September 18th, 2024:
Webinar 2, Tragedy and Violence, Chair, Eric Lewis, 13.15h-15h
13.15h-14.05h Florence Yoon, (University of British Columbia), “Bloody Hands”
14.15h-15.00h Edmund Cueva, (University of Houston-Downtown), “Offstage Horror: Messenger Speeches and Modern Horror Theory”
Thursday, September 19th, 2024:
Webinar 3, Natural/Supernatural Horrors, Chair, Kris Woofter, 11h-15h
11h-11h45 Hallie Marshall, (University of British Columbia) and Helen Eastman (Barefaced Greek), “Eco-horror and Tragedy”
11h50-12h35 Nathan Bowman, (Benedictine College), “Greek Tragedy and the Supernatural”
12h35-13h25 BREAK
13h30-14h15 Kyriaki Konstantinidou, (Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas), “Blood-sucking Agents in Greek Tragedy”
14h20-15h Kevin Wetmore, Jr., (Loyola Marymount University), “Listening is as Bad as Looking: Modern Echoes of Messenger Speeches that Describe Horrific Spectacle”
Discussion
Friday, September 20th, 2024:
Webinar 4, Diverse Disciplinary Approaches, Chair, Bruce King, 16h-20h
16h-16h45 Douglas Cairns (University of Edinburgh, virtual), “Emotional Contagion, Empathy, and Sympathy as Responses to Verbal and Visual Narratives: Some Conceptual and Methodological Issues”
16h50-17h35 Lynn Kozak (McGill University) and Kristopher Woofter (Dawson College), “Tragic Affects and Horror Histories”
17h40-18h25 BREAK
18h25-19h10 Angeliki Poulou, (National and Kapodsitrian University of Athens), “The tragic: terror, horror, conflict, performance”
19h15-20h Michael Chemers (University of California Santa Cruz, virtual), “Vengeance: The Intolerable Monster-Killer in Sophocles”
Saturday, September 21st, 2024:
Webinar 5, Euripidean Horror, Chair, Judith Fletcher, 11h-15h
11h-11h45 Mario Telò, (University of California Berkeley), “Horror and Elemental Stiffness: Euripides’ Hippolytus and Preminger’s Laura (1944)”
11h50-12h35 Marcus Prasad, (McGill University), “Dread, Tragedy, and Killing of a Sacred Deer”
12h35-13h25 BREAK
13h25-14h05 Jennyfer Desbiens, (Université du Québec à Montréal), “Iphigenia as Final Girl”
14h15-15h Bruce King, (Brooklyn Institute for Social Research), “Anti-tragic Horror and Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris”