Argues against the assumption that Plato's dialogues functioned as texts to be read silently, whereas classical sources suggest they were in some sense performed.
Plato's Metatheater examines theatrical and metatheatrical elements of Platonic dialogues to better understand how these engage dialogic audiences and impact dialogical interpretation and philosophical meanings. Addressing the Apology, Euthydemus, Theaetetus, Meno, Cratylus, Gorgias, Protagoras, and Hippias Major, this book suggests that Plato's dialogues may have been performed and asks how our reading of them changes if so. While we tend to assume that the dialogues functioned in antiquity as they do today--as written texts to be read silently and by oneself--classical sources suggest otherwise. If the dialogues were in some sense performed, their meanings, emphases, and references shift. Tanner argues that what emerges includes a form of metatheater, which addresses the audience and turns our attention self-reflectively back upon the cultivation of self-knowledge. Such metatheater occurs in Old and New forms of Greek comedy. This reading suggests that Plato is pulling back the curtain on his own performances, and it calls for a revised interpretation of Plato's dialogues.
