Bakkhai

Anne Carson

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cover image of the book Bakkhai

In traversing the eternal pull between what humans call reason and what that reason deems primal, Carson’s trademark simplicity allows this work to feel simultaneously ancient and contemporary.

— Publishers Weekly

A stunning new translation by the poet and classicist Anne Carson, first performed in 2015 at the Almeida Theatre in London

Bakkhai

Theaterby Anne Carson

Anne Carson writes, “Euripides was a playwright of the fifth century BC who reinvented Greek tragedy, setting it on a path that leads straight to reality TV. His plays broke all the rules, upended convention and outraged conservative critics. The Bakkhai is his most subversive play, telling the story of a man who cannot admit he would rather live in the skin of a woman, and a god who seems to combine all sexualities into a single ruinous demand for adoration. Dionysos is the god of intoxication. Once you fall under his influence, there is no telling where you will end up."

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Clothbound(published December 12, 2017)

ISBN
9780811227100
Price US
16.95
Price CN
22.95
Trim Size
5.1875x8
Page Count
96

Ebook(published December 12, 2017)

ISBN
9780811227117
Portrait of Anne Carson

Anne Carson

Canadian poet, essayist and translator of Greek mythology

In traversing the eternal pull between what humans call reason and what that reason deems primal, Carson’s trademark simplicity allows this work to feel simultaneously ancient and contemporary.

— Publishers Weekly

As a translator, Carson is well aware that her work must issue from the ever-changing afterlife of the original, an approach that requires cultural and textual fluidity. In short, Carson, like Euripedes, is unafraid to take risks.

— Bomb

Her translation of this Greek tragedy, first performed in 405 BC, reawakens the original’s sublimity and gives us the opportunity to be absorbed and shocked anew by the story of Dionysus.

— Lit Hub

Anne Carson is a daring, learned, unsettling writer.

— Susan Sontag