Aristophanes the Democrat
Aristophanes the Democrat
The Politics of Satirical Comedy during the Peloponnesian War
This book provides a new interpretation of the nature of Old Comedy and its place at the heart of Athenian democratic politics. Professor Sidwell argues that Aristophanes and his rivals belonged to opposing political groups, each with their own political agenda. Through disguised caricature and parody of their rivals' work, the poets expressed and fuelled the political conflict between their factions. Professor Sidwell rereads the principal texts of Aristophanes and the fragmented remains of the work of his rivals in the light of these arguments for the political foundations of the genre.
- New reading of the motivations behind and undercurrents of Greek Old Comedy
- Contains new evaluations of the major plays of Aristophanes
- Includes an appendix dealing with the external evidence for the history of Old Comedy
Product details
November 2009Hardback
9780521519984
424 pages
229 × 152 × 24 mm
0.73kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Part I. Setting the Stage:
- 1. Getting to grips with the politics of Old Comedy
- 2. Metacomedy and politics
- 3. Metacomedy and caricature
- Part II. The Poets' War:
- 4. Acharnians
- 5. Metacomedy, caricature and politics from Knights to Peace
- 6. Metacomedy, caricature and politics from Autolycus to Frogs
- Conclusions and consequences: Appendix 1. The view from the Theatron
- Appendix 2. Metacomedy and caricature in the surviving fourth century plays of Aristophanes
- Appendix 3. Timeline and proposed relationships between comedies
- Bibliography.
