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PERFORMANCE AND IDENTITY IN THE

CLASSICAL WORLD

Performance and Identity in the Classical World

traces attitudes toward actors in

Greek and Roman culture as a means of understanding ancient conceptions

of, and anxieties about, the self. The actor’s ability to impersonate different

characters might be considered a threat to a philosophical commitment to

the stability of the self, or to a political commitment to the stability of

the social order. Actors were thus often viewed as frauds and impostors,

capable of deliberately fabricating their identities. Conversely, they were

sometimes viewed as possessed by the characters that they played, or as merely

playing themselves onstage. Numerous sources reveal an uneasy fascination

with actors and acting, from the writings of elite intellectuals (philosophers,

orators, biographers, historians) to the abundant theatrical anecdotes that can

be read as a body of “popular performance theory.”

Performance and Identity

in the Classical World

examines these sources, along with dramatic texts, and

addresses the issue of impersonation from the late ﬁfth century BCE to the

early Roman Empire.

Anne Duncan is assistant professor of Classics in the Department of Languages

and Literatures at Arizona State University. She has published articles on

Greek and Roman comedy, Greek tragedy, and English Renaissance drama.

Performance and

Identity in the

Classical World

ANNE DUNCAN

Arizona State University