Attic theatre as a proto-media phenomenon: statement of the issue

For citation: Mikhailin V.Yu., Tikhonova S.V. Attic theatre as a proto-media phenomenon: statement of the issue // Mediascope. 2024. 4. Available at:  https://www.mediascope.ru/2882

© Vadim Yu. Mikhailin

Doctor of Philosophy, Professor at the Chair of Russian and Foreign Literature, Chernyshevsky Saratov National Research State University (Saratov, Russia), vmikhailin@yandex.ru

© Sofia V. Tikhonova

Doctor of Philosophy, Professor at the Chair of Theoretical and Social Philosophy of Literature, Chernyshevsky Saratov National Research State University (Saratov, Russia), segedasv@yandex.ru

Abstract

The article deals with the retrospective analysis of the attic theater as a special form of media. The authors strive to move away from traditional philological and art criticism approaches to the study of ancient theater in order to methodologically combine the social dimension of cultural anthropology with modern ideas about media pluralism and their role in social reproduction. They introduce the term "protomediality" in order, on the one hand, to emphasize the unique social functionality of the attic theater, which is unusual for modern theater, and on the other hand, to take into account the historical nature of their media exposure. The syncretism of the political and aesthetic in the realization of the basic functions of the theater in the Athenian polis does not mean that these are the same functions as those of the modern theater, or that they are "laid down" in the same proportion. The Attic theater, as a technically objectified form, in certain periods of its development was aimed at political consolidation and political integration of Athenian citizens, cultivating both group and general civic identity. By supporting civic reproduction, the Attic theater transmitted propaganda influence to the Greek polis external to Athens, creating an infrastructure for maintaining public social space.

Keywords: media communication, media theory, media history, protomediality, ancient Greek theater.

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