Comic Business Theatricality, Dramatic Technique, and Performance Contexts of Aristophanic Comedy

by Revermann, Martin

• ISBN13: 9780198152712
• ISBN10: 019815271X
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780191513206
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-07-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

Comic Business situates Aristophanic comedy in the context of competitive (re)performance culture in 5th- and 4th-century Greece. It seeks to illuminate how the dazzling busyness of Aristophanic comedy is the creation of a carefully manipulating craftsman trying to outdo his rivals in the fierce competition of the dramatic festivals. Theoretically informed by theatre semiotics and frame-based models of conceptualizing the theatrical event, it analyzes in a number of case studies how theatrical resources of all kinds are utilized in order to generate theatrical meaning as well as capture and sustain audience interest. The approach therefore combines philological analysis with methodologies developed in Theatre Studies. Special attention is given to the visual dimension of theatrical communication. Material from comparator traditions is brought to bear, as is the evidence of the pictorial record.

Author Biography

Martin Revermann is Assistant Professor in Classics and Theatre Studies, University of Toronto.

Table of Contents

List of Plates	ix
List of Figures and Tables	xi
List of Abbreviations	xii
PART I. ISSUES
1. Comic Business	3	(5)
2. Performance Criticism: Point and Methods	8	(58)
2.1 Texts as (Competitive) Performances	8	(17)
2.2 'Performance' and 'Analysis': Some Conceptual Groundwork	25	(21)
2.3 Analyse What? Reconstructing a Performance from a Text	46	(20)
3. Two Fundamental Problems	66	(41)
3.1 How Authentic is the Transmitted Performance Script in View of Reperformances?	66	(29)
3.2 How Typical of the Genre is Aristophanic Comedy?	95	(12)
4. Applying Performance Criticism	107	(72)
4.1 Space	107	(22)
4.2 Proxemics	129	(16)
4.3 Comic Ugliness	145	(14)
4.4 Performance and Audience	159
PART II. THREE PLAYS
5. Clouds	179	(57)
6. Lysistrata	236	(25)
7. Wealth	261	(38)
APPENDICES
A Comic Business in Aristophanes' Rivals	299	(21)
B Authorial Stage Directions in Ancient Dramatic Texts?	320	(6)
C Who was the Second Version of Clouds Written for?	326	(7)
D Performance Time	333	(5)
References	338	(27)
Indexes	365