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Oxford Readings in Menander, Plautus, and Terence

Edited by Erich Segal

Price: £32.00 (paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-872193-2
Publication date: 21 March 2002
312 pages, 21 line illus, 216x138 mm

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Reviews

'... a welcome addition to the study of "New Comedy" ... a very useful book ... the collection should help to dispel the myth that these comedies all tell 'the same basic story'.' - The Journal of Classics Teaching

Description

The only book to deal with three 'New Comedy' dramatists.
Shows how modern comedy evolved from its Greek and Latin antecedents.

This book documents the origins of modern comedy by examining the evolution of 'New Comedy', the Greek genre of which the works of Menander are the only surviving example. Earlier authors like Aristophanes wrote in a completely different style: raucous, bawdy, fantastical, and vaudeville.

Menander (of whom Plutarch said, 'what other reason would a cultivated man have to go to the theatre?') and his contemporaries presented civilised, urban comedies based on the themes of quiet domestic dramas.

The Romans adapted these comedies giving them their own farcical spin. Though they based their comedies on Greek originals, Plautus referred to them as 'barbarian versions'; they were mockeries on Hellenistic themes.

Terence, by contrast, is more like Menander, whose plays he followed with some fidelity, but without success. The Romans did not crave realism, they wanted a good laugh and Terence- though he could have done so- refused to pander to their vulgar tastes. Yet he got his revenge. It was Terence who provided the touchstone boy-meets-girl plots which still appear today in various guises on the silver screen.

An authoritative Introduction sets the papers, which are by leading experts in their field, in context and explores connections between them thus examining the legacy for modern comedies. All Latin and Greek is translated.

Readership: Student and scholars interested in classical literature especially Greek and Latin comedy. In particular the book focuses on Menander, Plautus, and Terence.

Contents

Introduction , Erich Segal

I. Greek Antecedents

1. Euripidean Comedy , Bernard Knox

II. Menander

2. The Conventions of the Comic Stage and Their Exploitation By Menander , E. W. Handley

3. Marriage and Prostitution in Classical New Comedy , David Wiles

4. Love and Marriage in Greek New Comedy , P. G. McC. Brown

5. Tragic Space and Comic Timing in Menander's Dyskolos , N. J. Lowe

III. Plautus

6. Plautus and the Public Stage , Erich Gruen

7. Traditions of Theatrical Improvisation in Plautus: Some Considerations , Gregor Vogt-Spira

8. Plautus' Mastery of Comic Language , W. S. Anderson

9. The Menaechmi : Roman Comedy of Errors , Erich Segal

10. Crucially Funny, or Tranio on the Couch: The Servus Callidus and Jokes About Torture , Holt Parker

11. Aulularia : City-State and Individual , D. Konstan

12. The Art of Deceit: Pseudolus and the Nature of Reading , A. R. Sharrock

13. The Theatre of Plautus: Playing to the Audience , Timothy J. Moore

14. The Theatrical Significance of Duplication in Plautus' Amphitruo , Florence Dupont

15. Amphitruo , Bacchae , and Metatheatre , Niall Slater

IV. Terence

16. The Originality of Terence and His Greek Models , Walther Ludwig

17. The Dramatic Balance of Terence's Andria , Sander M. Goldberg

18. Terence's Hecyra : A Delicate Balance of Suspense and Dramatic Irony , Dwora Gilula

19. Problems of Adaptation in the Eunuchus of Terence , J. A. Barsby

20. The Intrigue of Terence's Self-Tormentor , J. C. B. Lowe

21. Phormio parasitus : A Study in Dramatic Methods of Characterization , W. Geoffrey Arnott

Authors, editors, and contributors

Edited by Erich Segal, Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford

Links to web resources and related information

More in the same subject area:
Literature: history & criticism
European history: BCE to c 500 CE
History of ideas, intellectual history

The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.