Thursday, 3 October 2019 - 4:30 PM
Cohen Hall 402
In the course of her career, Ellen McLaughlin has written more than a dozen plays freely adapted from ancient Greek sources, most of them touching on war and the issues of veterans. Her speech concerns what she has learned about the Greek perspective on war, and how the veterans who wrote and were the audience for the earliest plays shaped the idea of tragedy and the burgeoning concept of democracy. She also speaks about how her contemporary understanding of war has intersected with the work of the ancient playwrights that have inspired her for so long. Her conclusion is that the effect of war on the human psyche has been much the same over the millennia, as have the needs of those who fight once they return home.