Charles Paul Segal (March 19, 1936 — January 1, 2002) was an American classicist renowned for his application of

critical theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...

to ancient texts. Although his work spanned a variety of Latin and Greek genres, he is best known for his work on

Greek tragedy Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy. Greek tragedy is widely believed t ...

. His most influential work is ''Tragedy and Civilization: an Interpretation of Sophocles'' (1981), in which he presents a structuralist approach to Greek theatre.

Career

Segal graduated from Harvard University in 1957 and, four years later, was awarded a doctorate from the same institution for a 900 page thesis on the philosopher Democritus. He held academic positions at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

, Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania, before returning to his alma mater in 1990. There, he served as the Walter C. Klein Professor of Classics until his death in 2002.Charles Segal
''The Independent'', February 13, 2002. Retrieved February 9, 2019.

Selected publications

*''Tragedy and Civilization: An Interpretation of Sophocles'', University of Oklahoma Press, 1981 *''Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides Bacchae, Princeton University Press, 1982 *''Orpheus: the Myth of the Poet'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989 *''Lucretius on Death and Anxiety'', Princeton University Press, 1990

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Segal, Charles Writers from Boston Scholars of ancient Greek literature 1936 births 2002 deaths Classical scholars of Harvard University Harvard University alumni 20th-century American male writers