Performing Citizenship in Plato's Laws

A study of the ethical underpinning of the rhetoric of citizenship in Plato's Laws and its implementation through ritualized forms of performance.

Lucia Prauscello (Author)

9781107072886, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 November 2014

281 pages
22.4 x 14.5 x 2 cm, 0.47 kg

In the Laws, Plato theorizes citizenship as simultaneously a political, ethical, and aesthetic practice. His reflection on citizenship finds its roots in a descriptive psychology of human experience, with sentience and, above all, volition seen as the primary targets of a lifelong training in the values of citizenship. In the city of Magnesia described in the Laws erôs for civic virtue is presented as a motivational resource not only within the reach of the 'ordinary' citizen, but also factored by default into its educational system. Supporting a vision of 'perfect citizenship' based on an internalized obedience to the laws, and persuading the entire polity to consent willingly to it, requires an ideology that must be rhetorically all-inclusive. In this city 'ordinary' citizenship itself will be troped as a performative action: Magnesia's choral performances become a fundamental channel for shaping, feeling and communicating a strong sense of civic identity and unity.

Introduction
Preliminaries
Part I. Performing Ordinary Virtue in Plato's Utopias: Citizenship, Desire and Intention: 1. Citizenship in Callipolis
2. Citizenship in Magnesia
Part II. Citizenship and Performance in the Laws: 3. Choral performances, persuasion and pleasure
4. Patterns of chorality in Magnesia
5. Comedy and comic discourse in Magnesia
6. Epilogue: on law, agency and motivation.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]