Papers by Eleftheria Siligouna
MA dissertation, 2015
This master’s thesis focuses on the first book of Thucydides’ History and offers a theoretical ap... more This master’s thesis focuses on the first book of Thucydides’ History and offers a theoretical approach that treats the work as a narrative with distinct literary qualities. These qualities are identified in the complex structure of the first book and the less historically grounded sections, particularly the reconstructed speeches - that is, the least historical part of Thucydides' work. These speeches are viewed as exercises in dialectic among the war’s protagonists, serving not only the historicity of the account, but also the author’s intended argumentation and the emplotment of the narrative. The speeches in direct discourse are referred to as the “direct dialectic level.” This thesis also identifies a second, “indirect dialectic level,” which emerges from the authorial commentary that complements the dialectical exchanges and establishes a dialogue between the author and the reader. Through this structured text, the author guides, while the reader follows. Based on this complex communication, this thesis argues that the first book can be characterized as a “readerly” text, according to Barthes’ structuralist theory, and it attempts to apply Barthes’ five codes of narrative structure to the first book of History.
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Papers by Eleftheria Siligouna