Bloomsbury Aristophanic Humour: Theory and Practice

This volume sets out to discuss a crucial question for ancient comedy what makes Aristophanes funny? Too often Aristophanes humour is taken for granted as merely instrumental in the delivery of political and social commentary. But Greek Old Comedy was above all else designed to amuse people. If the audience did not laugh at Aristophanes play more than at those of either of his rivals in the drama competition, he would be unlikely to be awarded first prize. Any discussion of Aristophanes therefore needs to take into account the ways in which his humour works. This question is addressed in two ways. The first half of the volume offers an in-depth discussion of humour theory a field heretofore largely overlooked by classicists and Aristophanists examining the various theory models within the specific context of Aristophanes eleven extant plays. In the second half, contributors explore Aristophanic humour in practice; that is, both by imagining the effect of the plays in their original performance contexts and also the ways in which contemporary performances of Old Comedy have approached the humour present in the text. This focus on performance reflects a vital part of the narrative, since humour lives or dies in performance it is never wholly comprehensible on the page alone.