Aristophanes and the Cloak of Comedy : Affect, Aesthetics, and the Canon / Mario Telò.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Telò, Mario, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aristophanes--Criticism and interpretation.

Aristophanes.

Greek drama (Comedy)--History and criticism.

Greek drama (Comedy).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (252 p.)

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2016]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Greek playwright Aristophanes (active 427-386 BCE) is often portrayed as the poet who brought stability, discipline, and sophistication to the rowdy theatrical genre of Old Comedy. In this groundbreaking book, situated within the affective turn in the humanities, Mario Telò explores a vital yet understudied question: how did this view of Aristophanes arise, and why did his popularity eventually eclipse that of his rivals? Telò boldly traces Aristophanes's rise, ironically, to the defeat of his play Clouds at the Great Dionysia of 423 BCE. Close readings of his revised Clouds and other works, such as Wasps, uncover references to the earlier Clouds, presented by Aristophanes as his failed attempt to heal the audience, who are reflected in the plays as a kind of dysfunctional father. In this proto-canonical narrative of failure, grounded in the distinctive feelings of different comic modes, Aristophanic comedy becomes cast as a prestigious object, a soft, protective cloak meant to shield viewers from the debilitating effects of competitors' comedies and restore a sense of paternal responsibility and authority. Associations between afflicted fathers and healing sons, between audience and poet, are shown to be at the center of the discourse that has shaped Aristophanes's canonical dominance ever since.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Note to the Reader

1 Delayed Applause: Competitive Aesthetics and the Construction of the Comic Canon

2 A Touch of Class: Th e Enduring Texture of Aristophanic Comedy

3 Emotional Rescue and Generic Demotion: Old Comedians and Tragedy's Ragged Audience

4 Th e Broken Net: Comic Failure and Its Consequences

5 Aristophanes' Electra Complex and the Future of Comedy

Epilogue

Synopses

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780226309729

022630972X

OCLC:

945663035