Seneca autore di teatro

Abstract

The early Imperial era saw a successful revival of interest in theatre both in its traditional forms and in new modes of expression (pantomimes, fabulae cantatae). Within this context, Senecan production emerged, a compact corpus of cothurnatae tragedies (there is also a praetexta, the only one that has come down to us), but it is considered certainly spurious), which poses innumerable questions regarding literary models and in particular the comparison with Greek precedents, the times of composition, the modes of representation, and the relationship with the social and political context. And yet, it is precisely the dissemination and in-depth knowledge of this dramaturgical experience that in the Humanistic era was responsible for the rediscovery of the very idea of theatre, which the Middle Ages had lost: thus, this article concludes with a retracing of the fundamental moments of the fortune of the tragic Seneca.