Laughing Awry
Laughing Awry

Author: Erik Gunderson

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 0198729308

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Laughing Awry offers a comprehensive overview of key themes in the interpretation of the plays of Plautus, and explores the connections between deception, desire, slavery, genre, and audience. In doing so, it offers an account of the mechanisms of Plautus' humour and the uncomfortable origins of laughter, revealing how his dramas do not just play to but also work on the audience. The volume examines the whole corpus of Plautine plays, providing longer accounts of selected dramas and choice scenes. An emphasis on methodological and theoretical questions is maintained throughout, and particular attention is paid to the psychic life of humour and its relationship to questions of social power. Chapters discuss, among other topics, the problem of writing about humour, Plautus' reception by subsequent Roman authors, the plays' embedded social theory, the intersection of circuits of desire, laughter as a scandalous surfeit, and the sublime perversity of laughter. The volume asks what we are laughing at, why we laugh, and what this laughter means.

A Companion to Plautus
A Companion to Plautus

Author: Dorota Dutsch

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2020-02-25

Total Pages: 516

ISBN-13: 1118957997

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An important addition to contemporary scholarship on Plautus and Plautine comedy, provides new essays and fresh insights from leading scholars A Companion to Plautus is a collection of original essays on the celebrated Old Latin period playwright. A brilliant comic poet, Plautus moved beyond writing Latin versions of Greek plays to create a uniquely Roman cultural experience worthy of contemporary scholarship. Contributions by a team of international scholars explore the theatrical background of Roman comedy, the theory and practice of Plautus’ dramatic composition, the relation of Plautus’ works to Roman social history, and his influence on later dramatists through the centuries. Responding to renewed modern interest in Plautine studies, the Companion reassesses Plautus’ works—plays that are meant to be viewed and experienced—to reveal new meaning and contemporary relevance. Chapters organized thematically offer multiple perspectives on individual plays and enable readers to gain a deeper understanding of Plautus’ reflection of, and influence on Roman society. Topics include metatheater and improvisation in Plautus, the textual tradition of Plautus, trends in Plautus Translation, and modern reception in theater and movies. Exploring the place of Plautus and Plautine comedy in the Western comic tradition, the Companion: Addresses the most recent trends in the study of Roman comedy Features discussions on religion, imperialism, slavery, war, class, gender, and sexuality in Plautus’ work Highlights recent scholarship on representation of socially vulnerable characters Discusses Plautus’ work in relation to Roman stages, actors, audience, and culture Examines the plot construction, characterization, and comic techniques in Plautus’ scripts Part of the acclaimed Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World series, A Companion to Plautus is an important resource for scholars, instructors, and students of both ancient and modern drama, comparative literature, classics, and history, particularly Roman history.

Myth-Making in Aristophanes Innovation and Evolution in Attic Comedy
Myth-Making in Aristophanes Innovation and Evolution in Attic Comedy

Author: Effie Zagari

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2024-10-01

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 1036411133

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This book focuses on the development of Attic comedy as it is evinced in four fragmentary plays by Aristophanes: Polyidus, Daedalus, Aeolosicon, and Cocalus. The significance of these plays lies in the fact that they present characteristics which are not prominent in the extant plays. They are mythological comedies that Aristophanes might have composed as parodies of tragedies. The four dramas exhibit elements largely present in Middle and New Comedy, such as the use and re-use of myths, the production of large-scale burlesque, domestic plots, unfolded outside Attica. This is a book directed to the wider audience, to all enthusiasts of Classics. It facilitates the understanding of an aspect of Aristophanes’ work, discernible only within his fragmentary dramas. This study thus revisits Old Comedy and enriches the scholarship with new insights and new discoveries regarding Aristophanes, his literary interactions, as well as his innovating and influential work.

Plautus and the English Renaissance of Comedy
Plautus and the English Renaissance of Comedy

Author: Richard F. Hardin

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2017-11-08

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 1683931297

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The fifteenth-century discovery of Plautus’s lost comedies brought him, for the first time since antiquity, the status of a major author both on stage and page. It also led to a reinvention of comedy and to new thinking about its art and potential. This book aims to define the unique contribution of Plautus, detached from his fellow Roman dramatist Terence, and seen in the context of that European revival, first as it took shape on the Continent. The heart of the book, with special focus on English comedy ca. 1560 to 1640, analyzes elements of Plautine technique during the period, as differentiated from native and Terentian, considering such points of comparison as dialogue, asides, metadrama, observation scenes, characterization, and atmosphere. This is the first book to cover this ground, raising such questions as: How did comedy rather suddenly progress from the interludes and brief plays of the early sixteenth century to longer, more complex plays? What did “Plautus” mean to playwrights and readers of the time? Plays by Shakespeare, Jonson, and Middleton are foregrounded, but many other comedies provide illustration and support.

Roman Comedy
Roman Comedy

Author: Gesine Manuwald

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-04-28

Total Pages: 94

ISBN-13: 9004435123

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This contribution by Gesine Manuwald provides an introduction to all varieties of ‘Roman comedy’, including primarily fabula palliata (‘New Comedy’, as represented by Plautus and Terence) as well as fabula togata, fabula Atellana, mimus and pantomimus. It examines the major developments in the establishment of these dramatic genres, their main characteristics, the performance contexts for them in Republican Rome, and their reception. The presentation of the key facts is accompanied by a description of the influential turns and recent trends in scholarship on Roman comedy. The essay is designed for scholars, teachers and (graduate) students who have some familiarity with Roman literature and are looking for (further) orientation in the area of Roman comedy.

The Cambridge Companion to Roman Comedy
The Cambridge Companion to Roman Comedy

Author: Martin T. Dinter

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-04-04

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 1107002109

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Provides a comprehensive critical engagement with Roman comedy and its reception presented by leading international scholars in accessible and up-to-date chapters.

Recognizing Miracles in Antiquity and Beyond
Recognizing Miracles in Antiquity and Beyond

Author: Maria Gerolemou

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2018-04-23

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 311056355X

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In recent years, scholars have extensively explored the function of the miraculous and wondrous in ancient narratives, mostly pondering on how ancient authors view wondrous accounts, i.e. the treatment of the descriptions of wondrous occurrences as true events or their use. More precisely, these narratives investigate whether the wondrous pursues a display of erudition or merely provides stylistic variety; sometimes, such narratives even represent the wish of the author to grant a “rational explanation” to extraordinary actions. At present, however, two aspects of the topic have not been fully examined: a) the ability of the wondrous/miraculous to set cognitive mechanisms in motion and b) the power of the wondrous/miraculous to contribute to the construction of an authorial identity (that of kings, gods, or narrators). To this extent, the volume approaches miracles and wonders as counter intuitive phenomena, beyond cognitive grasp, which challenge the authenticity of human experience and knowledge and push forward the frontiers of intellectual and aesthetic experience. Some of the articles of the volume examine miracles on the basis of bewilderment that could lead to new factual knowledge; the supernatural is here registered as something natural (although strange); the rest of the articles treat miracles as an endpoint, where human knowledge stops and the unknown divine begins (here the supernatural is confirmed). Thence, questions like whether the experience of a miracle or wonder as a counter intuitive phenomenon could be part of long-term memory, i.e. if miracles could be transformed into solid knowledge and what mental functions are encompassed in this process, are central in the discussion.

Epidicus by Plautus
Epidicus by Plautus

Author: Catherine Tracy

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

Published: 2021-11-23

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1800642873

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Epidicus, a light-hearted comedy by Plautus about the machinations of a trickster slave and the inadequacies of his bumbling masters, appears here in both its original Latin and a sparkling new translation by Catherine Tracy. Epidicus, the cunning slave, is charged with finding his master’s illegitimate daughter and the secret girlfriend of his master’s son, but a comedy of mistaken identities and competing interests ensues. Amid the mayhem, Epidicus aims to win his freedom whilst risking some of the grislier punishments the Romans inflicted on their unfortunate slaves. This parallel edition in both Latin and English, with its accessible introduction and comprehensive notes, guides the reader through this popular Roman play. Tracy explores Epidicus’s roots in Greek drama, its rich social resonances for a Roman audience and its life in performance. She transforms Plautus' colloquial Latin poetry into lively modern English prose, illuminating the play’s many comedic references to the world of the Roman republic. This fine introduction to an enduring play will be of great use and enjoyment for undergraduate students of Latin drama and the general reader alike.

Sublime Cosmos in Graeco-Roman Literature and its Reception
Sublime Cosmos in Graeco-Roman Literature and its Reception

Author: David Christenson

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2024-03-07

Total Pages: 365

ISBN-13: 1350344699

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The essays collected in this volume examine manifestations of our sublime cosmos in ancient literature and its reception. Individual themes include religious mystery; calendrical and cyclical thinking as ordering principles of human experience; divine birth and the manifold nature of divinity (both awesome and terrifying); contemplation of the sky and meteorological (ir)regularity; fears associated with overpowering natural and anthropogenic events; and the aspirations and limitations of human expression. In texts ranging from Homer to Keats, the volume's chapters apply diverse critical methods and approaches that engage with sublimity in various aesthetic, agential and metaphysical aspects. The ancient texts – epic, dramatic, historiographic and lyric – treated here are rooted in a remote world where, within a framework of (perceived) celestial order, literature, myth and science still communicated profoundly, a tradition that continued in literary receptions of these ancient works. This volume honours the intellectual legacy of Thomas D. Worthen, a scholar whose expertise and insights cut across multiple disciplines, and who influenced and inspired students and colleagues at the University of Arizona, USA, for over three decades. Beyond clarifying temporally and culturally distant contemplations of the human universe, these essays aim to inform the continuing sense of wonder and horror at the sublime heights and depths of our ever-changing cosmos.