Unsettled Dynamics

How can twenty-first-century understanding of audience experiences illuminate core aspects of ancient performance traditions, and how might Greek theatre challenge our modern frameworks? This volume advances discussion across theoretical, affective, and social dimensions of Greek spectatorship. The dynamic nature of dramatic spectatorship captures both the phenomenologically transient and emotionally moving qualities of attending theatre. The term 'unsettled' emphasizes spectators' shifting cognitive states within diverse audiences and points to the need for new analytical tools.

Spanning four sections and fourteen chapters, the volume examines tragedy and comedy through varied case studies. The 'tools and concepts' section provides methodological contributions on textual and material sources essential for understanding ancient spectatorial practices. These core ideas structure the subsequent analytical approaches: engagement modalities, affective responses, and the construction of collective entities among the audience. This interdisciplinary approach offers valuable insights for classicists, performance theorists, and reception scholars while providing cognitive scientists a rich historical perspective on embodied spectatorship.