Expressing emotions in public

fear as a dynamic and programmatic mechanism on Seven against Thebes

Abstract

The study proposes to reassess the articulation between fear and gender in Seven against Thebes. For this, it becomes necessary to observe the integral emotional context of the tragedy, which presents a counterpoint with the opposite emotion (Ret. 2.5, 1382bss.): courage. In the dramatic process, constituted by the staging of dynamic emotions (Konstan 2006), I observe the context in which they arise and manifest themselves, to reflect on what the playwright proposes through the game with the antagonistic pair phóbos-thársos.

According to the constructivist approach, emotions are the product of social interactions, which emerge and evolve from a particular context (Konstan 2011). This approach invites us to go beyond the study of the relationships between men and women by adopting a larger vision, which involves the civic status of emotion (Allard-Montlahuc 2018). Analyzing contexts, rather than states of mind, makes it possible to underline the fluidity in the way emotions are distributed between genders.

I sugest that the choir/king antagonism cannot be simplified as a mere gender opposition; nor as a simple contrast between fear and courage. In the overall context of the work, fear, which initially appears presented as a negative emotion that “damages from within” (vv. 191-194), is proposed in the second part as the only possible way out of the family curse. The exhibition of both emotions constitutes a dynamic and programmatic mechanism to involve and guide the audience in relation to the action that takes place, in a process that depends on the unique capacity of theater as a spectacle.