Dr Matthew Wright
Senior Lecturer
Extension: 4206
Telephone: 01392 724206
Matthew Wright has been a member of the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Exeter since leaving Oxford in 1999. He is spending the academic year 2011-12 at Vassar College, as Blegen Research Fellow in Classics.
His particular teaching and research interests lie in Greek and Roman drama and ancient literary criticism, and he is currently working on (inter alia) Plautus, irony, the concept of tyche in religion and literature, and tragic gnomai.
Matthew recently completed a new book, The Comedian as Critic, which will be published by Duckworth this year: this is a major new study of the relationship between comedy and poetic theory in the fifth century BC, incorporating discussion of many fragments of lost plays by Platon, Hermippus, Cratinus, Eupolis, Metagenes and others.
His other publications include numerous articles and reviews, as well as the books Euripides' Escape-Tragedies ('Voici un ouvrage très stimulant pour l'esprit... La satisfaction intellectuelle est entière' - Revue des études grecques) and Euripides: Orestes ('Wright's fine introductory treatment highlights the richness, complexity and entertainment value of the play in a way that should benefit both the book's primary intended audiences - students and theatre practitioners - and more advanced scholars... it deserves a place in the library of nearly every institution in which Classics and/or classical theater are taught' - Classical Journal).
He is an active member of the Classical Association (at local and national levels), a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a committee member of the Council for UK Classics Departments (CUCD), a Council Member of the Hellenic Society, and a member of the editorial board of Omnibus.
Outside the world of Classics, Matthew is also a musician. He performs widely as a pianist, organist, and singer, and is Assistant Organist of St Margaret's Church, Topsham. Recent and forthcoming appearances include concerts with the Exeter Bach Society, Exeter Singers and Devon Brass, piano solo and duet recitals in Crediton and Bridport, a Schubertiad in Topsham, and an appearance in the Exeter Autumn Festival. He would like to be more like Glenn Gould (in a good way).
Select recent publications:
'The tragedian as critic: Euripides and early Greek poetics', Journal of Hellenic Studies 130 (2010), 165-84.
'Literary prizes and literary criticism in antiquity', Classical Antiquity 28 (2009), 138-77.
'Enter a Phrygian (Euripides, Orestes 1369)', Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 48 (2008), 5-13.
'Comedy and the Trojan War', Classical Quarterly 57 (2007), 412-31.
