Rome And the Mysterious Orient

by Plautus, Titus Maccius

• ISBN13: 9780520242753
• ISBN10: 0520242750
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-30
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Still funny after two thousand years, the Roman playwright Plautus wrote around 200 B.C.E., a period when Rome was fighting neighbors on all fronts, including North Africa and the Near East. These three plays--originally written for a wartime audience of refugees, POWs, soldiers and veterans, exiles, immigrants, people newly enslaved in the wars, and citizens--tap into the mix of fear, loathing, and curiosity with which cultures, particularly Western and Eastern cultures, often view each other, always a productive source of comedy. These current, accessible, and accurate translations have replaced terms meaningful only to their original audience, such as references to Roman gods, with a hilarious, inspired sampling of American popular culture--from songs to movie stars to slang. Matching the original Latin line for line, this volume captures the full exuberance of Plautus's street language, bursting with puns, learned allusions, ethnic slurs, dirty jokes, and profanities, as it brings three rarely translated works--Weevil (Curculio), Iran Man (Persa),andTowelheads (Poenulus)--to a wide contemporary audience. Richlin's erudite introduction sets these plays within the context of the long history of East-West conflict and illuminates the role played by comedy and performance in imperialism and colonialism. She has also provided detailed and wide-ranging contextual introductions to the individual plays, as well as extensive notes, which, together with these superb and provocative translations, will bring Plautus alive for a new generation of readers and actors.

Table of Contents

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS	ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	xi
INTRODUCTION	1	(54)
Why This Book	1	(1)
Why Translate This Way	2	(2)
Conventions of Reference and Abbreviations	4	(1)
How These Plays Got from Plautus to Us	4	(5)
Other Translations	9	(1)
Historical Background	9	(21)
Translation Issues	30	(18)
Performance Issues	48	(5)
Suggestions for Further Reading	53	(2)
WEEVIL (CURCULIO)	55	(54)
Notes	97	(12)
IRAN MAN (PERSA)	109	(74)
Notes	160	(23)
TOWELHEADS (POENULUS)	183	(30)
Notes	251
BIBLIOGRAPHY	213	(70)
General References	273	(5)
Translations, Commentaries, and Special Studies	278	(1)
Historical Background	279	(4)
INDEX	283