Aristophanes and the Definition of Comedy

M S Silk author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

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Aristophanes and the Definition of Comedy cover

In this book Professor Silk presents a radically new critical study of Aristophanes. Against the limited view of Aristophanes as Athenian theatrical satirist, Professor Silk identifies him as one of the world's great writers. Through an exploration of Aristophanes' comic poetry, informed by a wide range of theory from Kierkegaard to Adorno, a particular consideration of Aristophanes' own understanding of his medium, and challenging comparisons with modern literature, this book adds a new chapter to the long-standing debate about the nature and potentialities of comedy. Close analyses of Aristophanes' language and style, lyric poetry, presentation of character, organizational structures, and humorous modes, are conducted in this spirit. The enigma of 'serious comedy' and of Aristophanes' complex preoccupation with tragedy is at the centre of a new assessment of Aristophanic comedy as a whole. All Greek in the text is translated; the versions offered seek to convey the distinctive character of the original.

Aristophanes and the Definition of Comedy by M.S. Silk appeared in January and to my mind, at the end of the year, remains unrivalled for its originality and excellence. This study puts flesh - indeed muscles - on the bones of the numerous other studies of the so-called Old Comedy which appeared during the last decade of the previous century. None matches the imagination, breadth and depth of Silk's study. * Erich Segal, International Books of the Year, Times Literary Supplement *
Michael Silk has brought to a climax in this book more than twenty years of writing on Aristophanes. * Hermathena: A Trinity College Dublin Review *
Silk is an acute and sensitive reader of Greek (and other texts) and has immensely well-developed faculties in conducting a subtle argument at the practical and theoretical level simultaneously. * Hermathena: A Trinity College Dublin Review *
This is an important book. It contains many excellent discussions of Aristophanic style and lays bare the futility of the discussion of Aristophanes's political seriousness. * Hermathena: A Trinity College Dublin Review *
Engaging study ... Silk offers some useful suggestions about the operation of the comic mode in pre-modern culture, and about theatrical comedy more generally that will stimulate discussion among all scholars of drama. * Years Work in English Studies *
This is unquestionably a work of major importance, one of the most distinctive contributions ever made to the interpretation of Aristhophanes. It is critically original, probing and adroit ... Silk's arguments teem with thought-provoking ideas and observations, as well as with a stimulating range of cultural cross-reference ... Even if one sometimes disagrees every page of this book demands to be pondered by anyone who wants to be made to rethink their view of Aristophanes in particular or of comedy in general. * Greece & Rome *
Aristophanes and the Definition of Comedy achieves a remarkable feat: it manages to marry a highly particularist set of literary interests with a sophisticated and eclectic theoretical approach to the nature of comedy. * Greece & Rome *
Silk's important book is stimulating and rich, a brilliant discussion of the nature of Aristophanic comedy. * Journal of Hellenic Studies *

ISBN: 9780198140290

Dimensions: 224mm x 146mm x 28mm

Weight: 645g

462 pages