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Description
This accessible introduction to the work of one of the world's greatest comic writers tackles key questions posed by Aristophanes' plays, such as staging, humour, songs, obscene language, politics and the modern translation and performance of Aristophanic comedy. The book opens up exciting and contentious areas of Aristophanic scholarship in a way that is engaging and readily comprehensible to a non-specialist audience, never losing sight of the fact that Aristophanes' plays are vibrant literary texts, designed primarily to appeal to a classical Athenian audience as pieces of living drama. Key to the book's appeal is that James Robson conceives of the plays as dynamic texts, containing a treasure trove of information not only about how they might have been performed and received in classical Athens, but also how they might be read and understood today. Most importantly, readers are given the tools and information to make their own minds up about the debates that still rage about Aristophanic comedy in the modern world.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Note on Greek Names and Words
1. Aristophanes and Old Comedy
2. Putting on a Show
3. Setting the Scene: Theatre Space and Costumes
4. Aristophanes the Humorist
5. The People of Aristophanes
6. Tragic Fragments
7. Taking Dirty: Aristophanic Obscenity
8. Waxing Lyrical: Aristophanes the Songwriter
9. Getting the Message: Aristophanic Politics
10. Aristophanes in the Modern World: Translation and Performance
Notes
Bibliography and Abbreviations
Index of Principal Passages Cited
General Index
Product details
Published | 16 Oct 2013 |
---|---|
Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 192 |
ISBN | 9781472519627 |
Imprint | Bristol Classical Press |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
-
... enters a market already occupied
by earlier books with the same goal... but in
many ways this book may be the best of the group in exposing students to a
balanced treatment of the critical issues that have come to dominate the study
of this author over the last three decades.IJCT
-
R.'s [Robson's] is a valuable addition to available introductions to Aristophanic comedy. Its thematic arrangement poses challenges for incorporating it into a course organised around reading the plays themselves, but students and other relative newcomers to this dramatic genre will undoubtedly acquire a refined sense for what is distinctive about Aristophanic comedy.
The Classical Review