Fiona Macintosh

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Fiona Macintosh
Born1959  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Alma mater
Awards
  • (2022)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Website https://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-fiona-macintosh   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Academic career
Fields Classical reception studies
Institutions
Doctoral advisor Michael Silk

Fiona Macintosh is professor of classical reception at the University of Oxford, director of the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, curator of the Ioannou Centre, and a Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford. [1]

Contents

Career

Macintosh gained her BA in English and Greek civilisation at the University of Leeds in 1980. She remained at Leeds for her MA in English literature, awarded in 1981. Macintosh moved to King's College, London for her PhD in classics and comparative literature, which was awarded in 1990. [1]

Macintosh was a lecturer in English at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London until 2000, when she moved to Oxford as senior research fellow at the APGRD. She was reader in Greek and Roman drama from 2008 to 2014, when she became professor of classical reception. Macintosh became the director of the APGRD in January 2010. [2] [3]

Macintosh's research focuses on the adaptation of Greek plays for the modern theatre and the reception of Greek tragedy from the Enlightenment to the present day. She has taken a particular interest in the adaptation of Greek tragedy for the Irish stage and has interviewed Frank McGuinness on the subject [4] and discussed with Wayne Jordan his adaptation of Oedipus for the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in 2015. [5] Macintosh has also researched adaptations of Antigone for the Irish stage. [6]

Macintosh frequently appears on discussion panels and at public events to examine the re-staging of Greek drama today, such as at the York Festival of Ideas in 2018, [7] speaking at the SAS in 2016, [8] debating at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2015, [9] the Oxford Literary Festival in 2014. [10]

Macintosh was invited to deliver the keynote lecture "From hearth to Hades: adventures with Medea and ballet d'action" at the international symposium "Placing Medea: Transfer, Spatiality, and Gender in Europe 1750−1800", at Uppsala University on April 25, 2018. [11] [12]

Macintosh will deliver the 2018-19 Sigmund H. Danziger Jr. Memorial Lecture in the Humanities on 17 May 2019 at the University of Chicago. [13]

Macintosh has been at the forefront of exploring the potential of presenting research in interactive multimedia ebooks, publishing performance histories that showcase digitised archival material and newly commissioned films, art, audio and audio-visual material. The earliest fruit of this exploration has been the e-book Medea, a performance history , published by the APGRD in 2016. A second e-book, dedicated to the performance history of Aeschylus' Agamemnon, is forthcoming (2019). [14]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euripides</span> 5th-century BC Athenian playwright

Euripides was a Greek tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him, but the Suda says it was ninety-two at most. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less complete. There are many fragments of most of his other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly because his popularity grew as theirs declined—he became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education, along with Homer, Demosthenes, and Menander.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antigone</span> Daughter of Oedipus in Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, Antigone is a Theban princess and a character in several ancient Greek tragedies. She is the daughter of Oedipus, king of Thebes; her mother is either Jocasta or, in another variation of the myth, Euryganeia. She is a sister of Polynices, Eteocles, and Ismene. The meaning of the name is, as in the case of the masculine equivalent Antigonus, "in place of one's parents" or "worthy of one's parents". Antigone appears in the three 5th century BC tragic plays written by Sophocles, known collectively as the three Theban plays, being the protagonist of the eponymous tragedy Antigone. She makes a brief appearance at the end of Aeschylus' Seven against Thebes, while her story was also the subject of Euripides' now lost play with the same name.

<i>Antigone</i> (Sophocles play) Tragedy by Sophocles

Antigone is an Athenian tragedy written by Sophocles in 441 BC and first performed at the Festival of Dionysus of the same year. It is thought to be the second oldest surviving play of Sophocles, preceded by Ajax, which was written around the same period. The play is one of a triad of tragedies known as the three Theban plays, following Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus. Even though the events in Antigone occur last in the order of events depicted in the plays, Sophocles wrote Antigone first. The story expands on the Theban legend that predates it, and it picks up where Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes ends. The play is named after the main protagonist Antigone.

<i>Oedipus Rex</i> Classical Athenian tragedy by Sophocles

Oedipus Rex, also known by its Greek title, Oedipus Tyrannus, or Oedipus the King, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed c. 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Greeks, the title was simply Oedipus (Οἰδίπους), as it is referred to by Aristotle in the Poetics. It is thought to have been renamed Oedipus Tyrannus to distinguish it from Oedipus at Colonus, a later play by Sophocles. In antiquity, the term "tyrant" referred to a ruler with no legitimate claim to rule, but it did not necessarily have a negative connotation.

Medea is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides based on a myth. It was first performed in 431 BC as part of a trilogy, the other plays of which have not survived. Its plot centers on the actions of Medea, a former princess of the kingdom of Colchis and the wife of Jason; she finds her position in the world threatened as Jason leaves her for a princess of Corinth and takes vengeance on him by murdering his new wife and her own two sons, before escaping to Athens to start a new life.

Oliver Taplin, FBA is a retired British academic and classicist. He was a fellow of Magdalen College and Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford. He holds a DPhil from Oxford University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Senecan tragedy</span> Ancient Roman tragedies

Senecan tragedy refers to a set of ten ancient Roman tragedies, eight of which were probably written by the Stoic philosopher and politician Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Senecan tragedy, much like any particular type of tragedy, had specific characteristics to help classify it. The three characteristics of Senecan tragedy were: five separate acts, each with a Chorus; recounting of ‘horrors’ and violent acts, which are usually done off-stage; and some sort of parallel of the violence that occurred. Only the Phoenissae departs from the five act structure. In the English literary canon, Seneca appears as a major influence on later texts about revenge, such as Titus Andronicus and The Crying of Lot 49.

Rush Rehm is professor of drama and classics at Stanford University in California, in the United States. He also works professionally as an actor and director. He has published many works on classical theatre. Rehm is the artistic director of Stanford Repertory Theater (SRT), a professional theater company that presents a dramatic festival based on a major playwright each summer. SRT's 2016 summer festival, Theater Takes a Stand, celebrates the struggle for workers' rights. A political activist, Rehm has been involved in Central American and Cuban solidarity, supporting East Timorese resistance to the Indonesian invasion and occupation, the ongoing struggle for Palestinian rights, and the fight against US militarism. In 2014, he was awarded Stanford's Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for Outstanding Service to Undergraduate Education.

Edith Hall, is a British scholar of classics, specialising in ancient Greek literature and cultural history, and professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University. She is a Fellow of the British Academy. From 2006 until 2011 she held a chair at Royal Holloway, University of London, where she founded and directed the Centre for the Reception of Greece and Rome until November 2011. She resigned over a dispute regarding funding for classics after leading a public campaign, which was successful, to prevent cuts to or the closure of the Royal Holloway Classics department. Until 2022, she was a professor at the Department of Classics at King's College London. She also co-founded and is Consultant Director of the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama at Oxford University, Chair of the Gilbert Murray Trust, and Judge on the Stephen Spender Prize for poetry translation. Her prizewinning doctoral thesis was awarded at Oxford. In 2012 she was awarded a Humboldt Research Prize to study ancient Greek theatre in the Black Sea, and in 2014 she was elected to the Academy of Europe. She lives in Cambridgeshire.

Peter Meineck is Professor of Classics in the Modern World at New York University. He is also the founder and humanities program director of Aquila Theatre and has held appointments at Princeton University and University of South Carolina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marianne McDonald</span> American philanthropist and scholar (born 1937)

Marianne McDonald is a scholar and philanthropist. Marianne is involved in the interpretation, sharing, compilation, and preservation of Greek and Irish texts, plays and writings. Recognized as a historian on the classics, she has received numerous awards and accolades because of her works and philanthropy. As a playwright, she has authored numerous modern works, based on ancient Greek dramas in modern times. As a teacher and mentor, she is highly sought after for her knowledge of and application of the classic themes and premises of life in modern times. In 2013, she was awarded the Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Classics, Department of Theatre, Classics Program, University of California, San Diego. In 1994, she was inducted into the Royal Irish Academy, being recognized for her expertise and academic excellence in Irish language history, interpretation and the preservation of ancient Irish texts. As a philanthropist, Marianne partnered with Sharp to enhance access to drug and alcohol treatment programs by making a $3 million pledge — the largest gift to benefit behavioral health services in Sharp’s history. Her donation led to the creation of the McDonald Center at Sharp HealthCare. Additionally, to recognize her generosity, Sharp Vista Pacifica Hospital was renamed Sharp McDonald Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford</span> Academic department in the UK

The Faculty of Classics, previously the Faculty of Literae Humaniores, is a subdivision of the University of Oxford concerned with the teaching and research of classics. The teaching of classics at Oxford was present since its conception and was at the centre of nearly all its undergraduates' education well into the twentieth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama</span>

The Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama (APGRD) is a research project based at the University of Oxford, England, founded in 1996 by Edith Hall and Oliver Taplin. The current director is Fiona Macintosh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxford Classical Drama Society</span>

The Oxford University Classical Drama Society (OUCDS) is the funding body behind the triennial Oxford Greek Play, an institution that has lasted for over 130 years.

Helene P. Foley is an American classical scholar. She is Professor of Classical Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University and a member of the Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality at Columbia. She specialises in ancient Greek literature, women and gender in antiquity, and the reception of classical drama.

Barbara Elizabeth Goff is a Classics Professor at the University of Reading. She specialises in Greek tragedy and its reception; women in antiquity; postcolonial classics and reception of Greek political thought.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miriam Leonard</span>

Miriam Anna Leonard is Professor of Greek Literature and its Reception at University College, London. She is known in particular for her work on the reception of Greek tragedy in modern intellectual thought.

Patrice Rankine is a Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago. He is a leading scholar in the area of classical reception.

Rosa Andújar, FHEA, is a Dominican-American classicist and senior lecturer at King's College London. She is an expert in ancient Greek tragedy, especially the tragic chorus, and Hellenic classicisms in Latin America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatro Technis</span> Theatre in London

Theatro Technis is an independent multi-cultural arts centre with a 120 -seat theatre located in the heart of London Borough of Camden. It contributes in general and specific ways to the cultural and social life of the people of London.

References

  1. 1 2 "Professor Fiona Macintosh | Faculty of Classics". www.classics.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  2. "People | APGRD". www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  3. "REF Case study search". impact.ref.ac.uk. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  4. "Frank McGuinness in conversation with Fiona Macintosh | University of Oxford Podcasts - Audio and Video Lectures". podcasts.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  5. "On Oedipus: Director Wayne Jordan in conversation - Interesting Talks Oxford". interestingtalks.in. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  6. Macintosh, Fiona (2011). "Chapter 4: Irish Antigone and Burying the Dead". In Mee, Erin B.; Foley, Helene P. (eds.). Antigone on the Contemporary World Stage. Oxford University Press. pp. 90–106. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199586196.001.0001. ISBN   9780199586196.
  7. "Re-staging Greek Tragedy Today - York Festival of Ideas". York Festival of Ideas. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  8. "Greek Tragedy in the Modern World - Dr. Fiona MacIntosh". School of Advanced Study. 22 September 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  9. "Past debates at the RSC | Royal Shakespeare Company". www.rsc.org.uk. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  10. "Dance: Ancient and Modern - 29 Mar 2014 - Oxford Literary Festival". oxfordliteraryfestival.org. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  11. Lindström, Joanna Bong. "Keynote – Fiona Macintosh - Department of Culture and Aesthetics". www.su.se. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  12. Uppsala University (25 April 2018). "Fiona Macintosh: "From hearth to Hades"". www.kalendarium.uu.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  13. "Latest News | Department of Classics". classics.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  14. Society for Classical Studies (8 May 2017), SCS Annual Meeting (2017): Presidential Panel - Fiona MacIntosh , retrieved 17 August 2018
  15. Lloyd, Michael (1996). "Review of Dying Acts: Death in Ancient Greek and Modern Irish Tragic Drama". Classics Ireland. 3: 208–215. doi:10.2307/25528300. JSTOR   25528300.
  16. Anderson, Michael (1995). "Dying Acts: Death in Ancient Greek and Modern Irish Tragic Drama. By Fiona Macintosh. Cork: Cork University Press, 1994. Pp. xx + 212. £30". Theatre Research International. 20 (3): 282. doi:10.1017/S0307883300008725. ISSN   1474-0672. S2CID   193181499.