Description
Book SynopsisIn Ladies' Greek, Yopie Prins illuminates a culture of female classical literacy that emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century, during the formation of women's colleges on both sides of the Atlantic. Why did Victorian women of letters desire to learn ancient Greek, a "dead" language written in a strange alphabet and no longer spoken? In
Trade Review"Shortlisted for the 2017 London Hellenic Prize, London Hellenic Society"
"Winner of the 2018 NAVSA Book Prize, North American Victorian Studies Association"
"Winner of the 2018 Robert Lowry Patten Award, SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900"
"The story of 'ladies' Greek', writes Yopie Prins in this fascinating academic study, goes hand in hand with that of the progress made in women’s education during the second half of the 19th century."
---Francesca Wade, Daily Telegraph"[A] splendid new study of late 19th- and early 20th-century female translators of ancient Greek tragedy. . . . Prins gives a fascinating account of the importance of Greek tragedy in translation and theatrical production in the colleges of higher education for women that emerged in this period."
---Emily Wilson, Guardian"[An] excellent new book. . . . [Prins] brings a perspective combination of biographical insight and historical overview."
---John Kerrigan, London Review of Books"In Yopie Prins' remarkably wide-ranging, even scandalously scholarly work, she has collected a series of vivid
tableaux vivant featuring translations and performances of Greek tragedies by 19th- and early 20th-century women, both in Britain and America."
---Mary Townsend, Education & Culture Review"
Ladies' Greek has been nearly twenty years in preparation. . . . It's been worth the wait. This is a wonderful demonstration of archival research, literary history and close reading which takes the discipline of classical reception to a new level. Like the subjects she describes, Prins breathes new life into dead papers, her own dazzling writing dancing across the page. . . . An exhilarating intellectual ride."
---Jennifer Wallace, Modern Language Quarterly"Prins has a gift for wordplay and turns of phrase . . . that can open up new speculative possibilities as we ask why women were so attracted to learning Greek. . . . [An] important study."
---Elizabeth Helsinger, Modern Philology"
Ladies’ Greek is an exceptional piece of work. Deftly written, insightful and expansive, the book demonstrates Prins’ excellence as a scholar. Prins has produced more than outstanding scholarship, though: her series of encounters with archival materials and the lives and works of past women they represent is both compelling and moving. I will confess that the book took some time to get through, but that is chiefly because I found myself re-reading some of the passages again and again as one might do a great piece of literature. . . . A triumph."
---David Bullen, Classical Review"A wonderful demonstration of archival research, literary history, and close reading,
Ladies’ Greek takes the discipline of classical reception to a new level. Like the subjects she describes, Prins breathes new life into dead papers, her own dazzling writing dancing across the page."
---Jennifer Wallace, Modern Language Quarterly"Prins’ archival analysis unpicks such conflicting perceptions of increased access to women’s education. Engrossing and accessible,
Ladies’ Greek reveals very different (self-)portraits of female classicists and paves the way for further studies of women’s encounters with classical antiquity."
---Rachel Bryant Davies, Journal of Hellenic Studies Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Preface xi Between Alpha and Omega xi Acknowledgments xv Introduction: Women and the Greek Alphabet 1 An Ode in Greek 1 "Some Greek upon the Margin" 5 "Ought Women to Learn the Alphabet?" 12 Translating Greek Tragedy 26 Chapter One: The Spell of Greek 35 Virginia Woolf 's Agamemnon Notebook 35 Cassandra between the Stage and the Page 45 OTOTOTOI 52 Chapter Two: IOTAOMEGA in Prometheus Bound 57 "So Harsh a Chain of Suffering" 57 Greek Verbs in Me 62 "A Goodly Company of Lady-Translators" 83 The Flight of Io, to America and Back to Greece 95 Chapter Three: The Education of Electra 116 Behold and See 116 Electra at Girton College 124 Electra at Smith College 137 Chapter Four: Hippolytus in Ladies' Greek (with the Accents) 152 New Measures for New Women 152 "A Brisk Interchange of Letters" 155 Euripidean (De)Cadence 163 H.D.'s Euripides: Feet, Feet, Feet, Feet 180 Chapter Five: Dancing Greek Letters 202 Modern Maenads 202 Jane Harrison's Thrill 209 Bryn Mawr College Rituals 218 Postface 233 Reading the Surface 233 Refractions of Antigone 236 How to Read Ladies' Greek 242 Notes 247 Bibliography 265 Index 289
