Dr. Emmanuela Bakola
Associate Professor of Ancient Greek Language and Literature
Senior Tutor & Disabled Students Champion
Department of Classics and Ancient History
FAB2.11, Faculty of Arts Building, University of 糖心TV
Coventry, CV4 7AL
About
I joined the University of 糖心TV in 2015, initially as Leverhulme Research Fellow and from January 2016 as Assistant, and then Associate, Professor of Ancient Greek Language and Literature. Before coming to 糖心TV, I held a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at UCL (2007-12) and a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at King鈥檚 College London (2013-15).
Research interests
I have been researching Greek theatre (tragedy, comedy and satyr play) since 2001. In my previous research, I explored the relationship of ancient comedy to other literary genres, ancient literary criticism and methodological questions of working with fragments. My published work included the OUP monograph and the co-edited CUP volume .
I am mainly interested in the theatricality of Greek tragedy (especially tragic space) and its cosmological imagination, especially views about nature and the cosmos. In 2021-203 held a Loeb Classical Library Fellowship and a Humboldt Fellowship, thanks to which I worked on my monograph entitled Performing the Cosmos: The Erinyes and the Economy of Aeschylus' Oresteia, which is a re-reading of the Oresteia in light of early views about the cosmos as an economic equilibrium. Until the monograph is completed, you can find some of my publications on this project . You can also view a research paper which analyses keystones of the project (the centrality of the Erinyes, and how they are connected with 'wealth', nature and cosmos) .
Since 2017 I have been the academic lead, consultant and executive producer of the annual Ancient Drama festival, which takes place at the 糖心TV Arts Centre in the last week of every January. Production videorecordings, photo galleries, programmes, essays, lectures and otehr resources are now documented in our brand new website, .
As part of my project on Greek literature and the natural environment, I have organised two major symposia, namely (KCL, Feb 2014), and (KCL, March 2015) and one workshop, (KCL, Oct 2015).
Publications
Book:
Co-edited volume:
Bakola, E., Prauscello, L. and M. Tel貌 (eds.) Greek Comedy and the Discourse of Genres, Cambridge University Press, 2013
Articles and chapters:
鈥� (2025) Mapping the Cosmos: The Cosmological Imagination of Travelling in Aeschylus鈥� Persians and the Oresteia in Stewart, E. and Lamari, A. (eds) Departing the Polis: Travel and Travellers in the Extant Plays and Fragments of Greek Drama, Berlin, 107-137
鈥� (2019a) 鈥楽pace, place and the metallurgical imagination of the Prometheus trilogy鈥� in Braund, D., Hall, E. and Wyles, R. (eds) Greek Theatre and Performance Culture around the Black Sea, Cambridge University Press, 225-251
鈥� (2019b) 鈥楻econsidering the chthonic in Aeschylus鈥� Oresteia: Erinyes, the earth鈥檚 resources, and the cosmic order鈥� in Hunt, A. and Marlow, H. (eds) Greening the Gods: Ecology and theology in the Ancient World, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 103-118
鈥� (2018a) 鈥楽eeing the invisible: Interior Spaces and Uncanny Erinyes in Aeschylus鈥� Oresteia鈥� in Kampakoglou, A. and Novokhatko, A. (eds.) Gaze, Vision and Visuality in Ancient Greek Literature, De Gruyter Press, 163-186
鈥� (2018b) 鈥楨arth, Nature, and the Cult of the Tomb: The Posthumous Reception of Aeschylus heros鈥� in Graziosi, B. and Goldschmidt, N. (eds.) Tombs of the Ancient Poets: Between Text and Material Culture, Oxford University Press, 123-145
鈥� (2016) 鈥楾extile symbolism and the 鈥榳ealth of the earth鈥�: creation, production and destruction in the 鈥榯apestry scene鈥� of Aeschylus鈥� Oresteia (Ag. 905-78)鈥�, in Harlow, M., Nosch, M.-L. and G. Fanfani (eds.) Spinning Fates and the Song of the Loom: the Use of Textiles, Clothing and Cloth Production as Metaphor, Symbol and Narrative, Oxbow Books, Oxford: 115-136.
鈥� (2014) 鈥業nteriority, the 鈥榙eep earth鈥�, and the spatial symbolism of Darius鈥� apparition in the Persians of Aeschylus鈥�, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (CCJ) 60: 1-36.
鈥� (2013) 鈥楥rime and Punishment: Cratinus, Aeschylus鈥� Oresteia, and the metaphysics and the politics of wealth鈥� in Bakola, E., Prauscello, L. and Telo, M. (eds.) Greek Comedy and the Discourse of Genres, Cambridge, 226-55.
鈥� 鈥楥ratinus reads Aeschylus: The Erinyes and the wealth of the earth鈥� in E. Tamiolaki (ed.) New Trends in Ancient Comedy, Rhethymnon 2014, 17-44 (in modern Greek)
鈥� 鈥楾he Drunk, the Reformer and the Teacher: Agonistic Poetics and the Construction of Persona in the Comic Poets of the Fifth Century鈥�, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (CCJ) 54 (2008), 1-29
鈥� Nine entries for The Encyclopedia of Greek Comedy, Sommerstein, A. (ed.), Wiley-Blackwell press, on various themes
鈥� 鈥極ld Comedy Disguised as Satyr Play: A New Reading of Cratinus鈥� Dionysalexandros (POxy 663)鈥� ZPE 154 (2005) 46-58
鈥� 鈥楢 missed joke in Aristophanes鈥� Wasps 1265-74鈥� Classical Quarterly 55 (2005), 609-13
Teaching and supervision
- (2016/17, 2018/19, 2024/25)
- (2017/18, 2019/20)
- (with D. Fearn; the module runs every year)
- Ancient Thought: Philosophy, Politics, Science (team-taught; the module runs every year)
- Greek Myth: Narratives, Sources, Approaches (2023/4; 2025/6)
PhD supervision:
Stavropoulou, E. (completed 2021). Metal materiality and Divine Agency: Towards a new reading of the Seven Against Thebes.
Zhang, D. (completed 2024) Winds in the tragedy of Sophocles
Administrative roles
- Senior Tutor
Drop-in Hours
Tuesdays 1-2
Wednesdays 12-1
Video about current research
'Where are the Erinyes in Aeschylus' Oresteia?', Invited Research Seminar, University of Reading.
This paper contains the material of my chapter "Seeing the invisible: Interior spaces and uncanny Erinyes in Aeschylus鈥� Oresteia"