Aristophanes and Politics

Aristophanes and Politics PDF Author: Ralph M. Rosen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004424466
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
This book presents a collection of new studies on the political aspects of Aristophanes’ comic plays, produced in Athens in the latter half of the 5th century BCE.

Aristophanes and Politics

Aristophanes and Politics PDF Author: Ralph M. Rosen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004424466
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
This book presents a collection of new studies on the political aspects of Aristophanes’ comic plays, produced in Athens in the latter half of the 5th century BCE.

Aristophanes the Democrat

Aristophanes the Democrat PDF Author: Keith Sidwell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521519985
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
This book argues that writers of Old Comedy belonged to recognisable political circles and used their comedy to disparage their political enemies.

Spectator Politics

Spectator Politics PDF Author: Niall W. Slater
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 9780812236521
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Spectator Politics is the first major study of metatheatre, or theatrically self-conscious performance, in Aristophanes. Using a reception-based performance criticism, Niall Slater elucidates the comic effectiveness of the earliest surviving comedies in the Western tradition. Slater demonstrates that Aristophanes employed metatheatre not simply to entertain but also to teach his audience how to read and interpret performance in other key public venues of the ancient democracy of Athens, such as performances in the political assembly and law courts. Aristophanes was, Slater contends, the first performance critic. Spectator Politics shows how Aristophanes' comedy served the Athenians by helping them to become active political participants, teaching them to see through deceptive performances, whether on stage or in the political sphere. His comedies use self-conscious performance to encourage the public to move out of the role of passive consumers of spectacle and to reengage the political process. Aristophanes' critique of performance prefigures much in the performance-dominated culture of the modern American political scene. Throughout, detailed readings of the original stagings illuminate the plays for today's audiences and performers, while Slater's cultural critique provides much for those interested in Athenian democracy and its lesson for the contemporary political scene. Spectator Politics offers a salutary demonstration of the power of art to expose and resist the performance powers of would-be demagogues.

Plato and Aristophanes

Plato and Aristophanes PDF Author: Marina Marren
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0810144204
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
In Plato and Aristophanes, Marina Marren contends that our search for communal justice must start with self-examination. The realization that there are things that we cannot know about ourselves unless we become the subject of a joke is integral to such self-scrutiny. Jokes provide a new perspective on our politics and ethics; they are essential to our civic self-awareness. Marren makes this case by delving into Plato’s Republic, a foundational work of political philosophy. While the Republic straightforwardly condemns the decadence and greed of a tyrant, Plato’s attack on political idealism is both solemn and comedic. In fact, Plato draws on the same comedic stock and tropes as do Aristophanes’s plays. Marren’s book strikes up an innovative conversation between three works by Aristophanes—Assembly Women, Knights, and Birds—and Plato’s philosophy, prompting important questions about individual convictions and one’s personal search for justice. These dialogic works offer critiques of tyranny that are by turns brilliant, scathing, and exuberant, making light of faults and ideals alike. Philosophical comedy exposes despotism in individuals as well as systems of government claiming to be just and good. This critique holds as much bite against contemporary injustices as it did at the time of Aristophanes and Plato. An ingenious new work by an emerging scholar, Plato and Aristophanes shows that comedy—in tandem with philosophy and politics—is essential to self-examination. And without such examination, there is no hope for a just life.

Against Demagogues

Against Demagogues PDF Author: Robert C. Bartlett
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520344103
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
Against Demagogues presents Robert C. Bartlett's new translations of Aristophanes' most overtly political works, the Acharnians and the Knights. In these fantastically inventive, raucous, and raunchy comedies, the powerful politician Cleon proves to be democracy's greatest opponent. With unrivalled power, both plays make clear the dangers to which democracies are prone, especially the threats posed by external warfare, internal division, and class polarization. Combating the seductive allure of demagogues and the damage they cause, Against Demagogues disentangles Aristophanes' serious teachings from his many jokes and pratfalls, substantiating for modern readers his famous claim to "teach justice" while "making a comedy" of the city. The book features an interpretive essay for each play, expertly guiding readers through the most important plot points, explaining the significance of various characters, and shedding light on the meaning of the plays' often madcap episodes. Along with a contextualizing introduction, Bartlett offers extensive notes explaining the many political, literary, and religious references and allusions. Aristophanes' comedic skewering of the demagogue and his ruthless ambition—and of a community so ill-informed about the doings of its own government, so ready to believe in empty promises and idle flattery—cannot but resonate strongly with readers today around the world.

Socrates and the Political Community

Socrates and the Political Community PDF Author: Mary P. Nichols
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438414676
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
This book takes a fresh look at Socrates as he appeared to three ancient writers: Aristophanes, who attacked him for his theoretical studies; Plato, who immortalized him in his dialogues; and Aristotle, who criticized his political views. It addresses the questions of the interrelation of politics and philosophy by looking at Aristophanes' Clouds, Plato's Republic, and Book II of Aristotle's Politics—three sides of a debate on the value of Socrates' philosophic life. Mary Nichols first discusses the relation between Aristophanes and Plato, showing that the city as Socrates' place of activity in the Republic resembles the philosophic thinktank mocked in Aristophanes' Clouds. By representing the extremes of the Republic's city, Plato shows that the dangers attributed by Aristophanes to the city are actually inherent in political life itself. They were to be moderated by Socratic political philosophy rather than Aristophanean comedy. Nichols concludes by showing how Aristotle addressed the question at issue between Plato and Aristophanes when he founded his political science. Judging Plato's and Aristophanes' positions as partial, Nichols argues that Aristotle based his political science on the necessity to philosophy of political involvement and the necessity to politics of philosophical thought.

"Women's Work" as Political Art

Author: Lisa Pace Vetter
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739110638
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
This book shows that the metaphor of the quintessentially feminine art of weaving in Homer's Odyssey, Aristophanes' Lysistrata, and Plato's Statesman and Phaedo conveys complex and inclusive teachings about human nature and political life that address the concerns of women mor...

Socrates and Aristophanes

Socrates and Aristophanes PDF Author: Leo Strauss
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226777197
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
In one of his last books, Socrates and Aristophanes, Leo Strauss's examines the confrontation between Socrates and Aristophanes in Aristophanes' comedies. Looking at eleven plays, Strauss shows that this confrontation is essentially one between poetry and philosophy, and that poetry emerges as an autonomous wisdom capable of rivaling philosophy. "Strauss gives us an impressive addition to his life's work—the recovery of the Great Tradition in political philosophy. The problem the book proposes centers formally upon Socrates. As is typical of Strauss, he raises profound issues with great courage. . . . [He addresses] a problem that has been inherent in Western life ever since [Socrates'] execution: the tension between reason and religion. . . . Thus, we come to Aristophanes, the great comic poet, and his attack on Socrates in the play The Clouds. . . [Strauss] translates it into the basic problem of the relation between poetry and philosophy, and resolves this by an analysis of the function of comedy in the life of the city." —Stanley Parry, National Review

The Cambridge Companion to Greek Comedy

The Cambridge Companion to Greek Comedy PDF Author: Martin Revermann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521760283
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 523

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Book Description
This book provides a unique panorama of this challenging area of Greek literature, combining literary perspectives with historical issues and material culture.

Politics and Persuasion in Aristophanes' Ecclesiazusae

Politics and Persuasion in Aristophanes' Ecclesiazusae PDF Author: K.S. Rothwell
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004329072
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
This study shows that the Ecclesiazusae is an affirmation of the importance of persuasion in the fourth- century democracy. Praxagora, the attractive and articulate female protagonist, virtually personifies peitho, the realm of both political persuasion and erotic seduction. The ability of peitho to address both public and private motivations makes it the perfect instrument to resolve the tension in the fourth century between selfishness and civic participation. This is, after all, the central issue in the later episodes of the play.