| Charles Segal | |
| Birth Date: | 19 March 1936 |
| Birth Place: | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Death Place: | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Alma Mater: | Harvard University |
| Influences: | Jean-Pierre Vernant Pierre Vidal-Naquet |
| Discipline: | Classics |
| Notable Works: | Tragedy and Civilization: an Interpretation of Sophocles (1981) Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides Bacchae' (1982) |
Charles Paul Segal (March 19, 1936 — January 1, 2002) was an American classicist renowned for his application of critical theory to ancient texts.[1] Although his work spanned a variety of Latin and Greek genres, he is best known for his work on Greek tragedy. His most influential work is Tragedy and Civilization: an Interpretation of Sophocles (1981), in which he presents a structuralist approach to Greek theatre.[2]
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.[3] He held academic positions at Brown University, 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.[4]