Transcript Document
Final Exam Review Why do Homeric gods laugh? • Name three reasons: – Physical handicap – Defeat in battle – Public humiliation Obscenities linked to the cult of Demeter • • • • Insults Dirty jokes Blasphemies Representations of genitals carried in a solemn procession • Feast celebrated only by women (cakes in the shape of genitals were on the menu). Early history of Greek comedy • Komos – Wild celebrative processions, – Phallus – Heavy wine drinking; • Rural Dionysia – Performers’ faces painted or masked – Obscene refrains – Phallus ‘Comedy’ • komos = procession • ode = song Early history of Greek comedy • Pharmakos – – – – Thargelia & adverse periods (plague, famine, etc.) Scapegoat chosen from among the poor and ugly. Received special treatment Led in a procession around the city • unharmonious music, • beaten on the penis • pelted with stones and chased over the border. Great Dionysia • The festival during which – literary comedy was performed • Introduced by – PEISISTRATOS • Presided over by – a state official called “archon” • Lasted – three to five days ‘Literary’ drama performed at the Great Dionysia • Serious drama – tragedy – dithyramb • Comic drama – satyr plays – comedy Aristophanic laughter • Did the comic theater exist in the 5th century BCE? – an independent institution • Was comedy is still linked to festive humor? – Yes. • Arsistophanes and carnival? – A. mocks a world upside-down, reinforcing the preexisting order. Aristophanes and the City? • Dominant concern In A’s plays? – the welfare of his POLIS, the city-state, • Purpose of sexual metaphors and obscenities – Primarily a means for denouncing the degradation of political life. Lysistrata 411 BCE • Plot – Women go on sex strike and occupy the Acropolis – Old men try to defeat them, with no success – The play ends with the restoration of love and marriage Gender and Greek theater • Who compose the plays, played in them, and constituted the audience of Athenian theater? – men • Are there any female roles? – Numerous and notable. Athenian women • were legal non-entities. • did not take part in any public events, except for certain religious activities COMOEDIA PALLIATA • Meaning ‘comedy in Greek mantle’ • How was it related to Greek now comedy? – used the scripts of Greek New Comedy – adapted them to suit the taste of Roman audiences, often combining several plays into one. Plot Conventions • Boy wants girl BUT rival/pimp has girl • Boy with the help of slave overcomes obstacles • Boy acquires girl Dramatis personae • Boy: – a bit dumb • Girl: – clever (prostitute) or innocent (virin) • Old man: – does not want to share • Matron: – owns husband or serves him • Maid: – devoted to mistress Slave, trickster, and director • Often referring to himself as imperator, architect, engineer • The poet’s self-centered and conceited alterego • Indulges in dialogues with the audience The chief divinity… • Fortuna reigns supreme over all comic plots Plautus • Full name: • Titus Macc(i)us Plautus = Dick Clowns’son Flatfooted • Facts – Active between the end of the third and the beginning of the second century BCE – We have the dates of two plays. – Cicero gives us the date of Plautus’ death. Theater at the time of Plautus • Stages – Temporary • Troupes – slaves under the direction of dominus gregis • Actors – slaves, yet organized into a guild BACCHIDES = Wild, Wild Women • Young Athenian travels in business; he asks his friend to take care of his courtesan girlfriend Bacchis. • YA comes back with a sum of money to buy B, but hears that his friend and girlfriend are having an affair and gives the money back to his father. • Too late, he realizes that his faithful friend was kissing the twin sister of his beloved… Bacchiac laughter and Roman attitudes towards homosexuality • The original title of the Wild, Wild Women was BACCHIDES • In Dionysus = Bacchus was the official patron of theater • Guild of actors = Artisans of Dionysus • Roman actors were probably worshipers of Bacchus • THUS actors = Bacchae = Bacchides = wild women What cult of Bacchus? • The worship of Bacchus (=Bacchanalia) – was prohibited by the Roman senate in 186 BCE • Those involved – were punished by death Bacchides and Bacchanalia • • • • • • • • Male actors wearing women’s clothing Male worshipers wearing women’s clothing Old and young mixing together Old and young mixing together In a “temple of Bacchus” In a temple of Bacchus Criticized by severe moralist (Zeugma). Criticized by severe moralists (the senate) So what? • When the Bacchides entice the (originally severe) fathers join their sons, • Plautus’ message may pertain to a hot social and political issue. • This would contradict the belief that new comedy and palliata are APOLITICAL TERENCE • Name: – Publius Terentius Afer • Facts – – – – Born in Cartage Educated by Terentius Lucanus Part of Scipio’s circle of intellectuals At the age of 32 leaves Rome setting out for Greece, and never comes back. Features typical for Terence • Young man falls in love but cannot marry until obstacles are overcome + a side-plot • Focus on relationships & misunderstandings • Interest in human nature; homo sum humani nil a me alienum puto. TERENCE’s Mother-in-Law • • • • • • • Trust and loyalty Pamphilus disloyal to Bacchis His father mistrusts his wife Sostrata His father-in-law mistrusts his wife—Myrrina Philumena gives birth to an illegitimate child Myrrina lies to her husband about the child Pamphilus lies to his parents about the reason for his rejection of Philumena… Characters against stereotypes: • The most loyal and honest figure in this play is – the prostitute (recall the women in Major Blowhard and Wild, Wild Women). • The clever slave is – unable to fulfill the simplest task • The mother-in-law – loves her daughter • The selfish lover – shows compassion. SATIRE • Name: SATURA • Satyrus – may be associated with Greek satyr plays • Lanx satura – a full dish, an offering at a harvest home including a variety of fruit = pot pourri Ritual equivalents • • • • Cursing Shaming Improvised Versus Fescennini Public ritualized blame used to enforce community values and punish transgressions • Akin to, but more aggressive than, carnivalesque laughter Greek precedents • Diatribe (ethical sermon preached by a philosopher) • Menippus of Gadara (3rd BCE) a Cynic philosopher writing diatribes in a mixture of prose and poetry. Roman Satire before Horace • Quintus Ennius (3rd-2nd BCE) – four books in a variety of meters. • Lucilius (2nd BCE) – Inventor of the genre – Personal invective • Varro (1st BCE) – volumes of satire imitating Menippus Horace st (1 BCE) • Born at Venusia in 65 BCE • Son of a freedman, educated in Rome and Athens. • 40 – 30 BCE Epodes and Satires Themes of Horace’s Satires • • • • • Literary & programmatic Human vices: greed, adultery, indulgence Friendship Tableaux: traveling, struggling with a bore Impersonations: e.g., Davus the Philosophizing Slave Horace, Satire 1.1 • Why are people unhappy about their fate? Why do they envy others? • Because we constantly seek wealth • Why is that? • Because we are unable to be satisfied with what is necessary Reading Satire 1.1 • Images of people who envy each other – Soldier and merchant – Lawyer and farmer • In making provisions we behave like ants mindful of our future. – But ants are wiser than people; they know when to stop. Horace’s recipe for happiness • To be happy we need to control our desires, satisfying them only as far as it is absolutely necessary… . Horace on writing satire • Teachers coaxing children to learn the alphabet • “Let us explore serious matters while joking” Horace Satire 1.2 • • • • Some people spend too much Others spend too little Thus nil est medium There is no moderation, or: no one is moderate Examples of excess • Some men prefer to have affairs with society ladies • Others prefer the lowest prostitutes • Some people suffer when pursued by angry relatives • Others spend too much on high-class prostitutes Solution • Do not let your sexual desire disturb you • Ordinary prostitutes or household slaves will “serve you” best. Moral Inquiry • • • • Horace’s criticism is informed by a search for a new enlightened way of life. Instead of attacking individuals, Horace focuses on typical figures, almost comic stock types Style • Horace says that satire is not true poetry, – because it does not require inspiration. • Its style is close to everyday conversation in verse. Juvenal • • • • st 1 to nd 2 CE Writing after the death of DOMITIAN Good rhetorical training Little interest in philosophy Sixteen satires in hexameter, subdivided into five books. Goals of Juvenal’s Satires • Juvenal criticizes corruption of the political and social life in Rome • BUT he does not believe that satire can help anyone become a better or happier person. Tragic Satire • Juvenal’s Satires are inhabited by monstra (freaks) • rather than by comic characters Style • Shocking contrasts between lofty and obscene • Surprising statements: • Ambiguity • Dense and memorable formulations Juvenal Satire 1 • Introduction • I have suffered listening to poor writing – It is now my turn to make others suffer (?) “This monstrous city” • Gallery of male freaks – – – – Eunuch getting married Foreigners who ‘made it’ Informers Actors • Gallery of female freaks – Poisoners – Incestuous Adulteresses THEORIES • Freud – laughter is an expression of the unconscious • Bakhtin – Carnival spirit was separate from official celebrations; it offered ‘a second world outside officialdom’ – Carnival laughter attacks all people, including the participants of the carnival – Carnival often brings things to the materialistic and bodily levels. According to Juvenal… • • • • • The rich who gamble their fortunes The poor watch magistrates and women in litters Dependants spend all days hanging around their patron Wealth comes from crime So: “Indignation would make me a poet, even if I have no talent.” Symmetry versus chaos • Juvenal’s subject is life itself and life is chaotic • He makes his points covertly • Like a good teacher he comes back to the same topic several times • In doing so, he also follows the principles of rhetoric CHRISTIAN OPPOSITION AGAINST COMEDY • TERTULIAN (2nd -3rd CE) • Wrote and lived in Carthage (a center of both Christianity and show-business) • Published a book condemning theater entitled On Spectacles • Thought – Christian women should wear veils – Remarriage should be forbidden Tertulain against theater • • • • • • Idolatry pagan religious origin of the games. Obscenity Atellan farces, naked prostitutes, etc. Venus and Bacchus demons promoting immodesty of gestures and attire Augustine th (4 CE) • Lived most of his life in Roman Africa • Bishop of Hippo and publishes Confessions Augustine against Theater • Site of debauchery • An expression of polytheism • Theater as a venue inappropriate for Christian contents Medieval Comedy • No scripts of medieval comedy or references to comic performances survive. • There is no such a thing as a scripted medieval comedy… HROSVIT th (10 • Composed six comedies • Life (based on prefaces) • aristocrat • exceptionally learned CE) Hrotsvit and Terence • Hrotsvit wants her plays to be read (possibly aloud) instead of Terence, whose text was frequently used in school recitations • She considers her output to be morally superior to Terence from whom she borrows formal devices Hrotsvit’s, concept of Contrasting World-views • Pagan – Enjoyment of worldly beauty – Contempt for spiritual values – Goal: enjoyment of life • Christian – True beatitude possible after death – Contempt for physical pleasure and pain – Goal: spiritual wedding with God SHAKESPEARE AND RENAISSANCE COMEDY • Shakespeare’s Education: – 'The King's New School of Stratford-uponAvon'. – Latin strongly emphasized – Plays of Plautus and Terence studied and imitated – Declamation of Latin speeches Laughter and Elizabethan Society • Renaissance Theory of laughter • Joubert’s Treatise on Laughter (‘one of the most astounding actions of man’) – Laughable in deed (accidental versus deliberate) • Accidental: body parts, fall (damage cannot be too serious) • Deliberate: practical jokes, imitation – Laughable in word (stories, wordplay) Laughter and Elizabethan Society • Folk Practice: Inversion and Laughter • The Lord of Misrule (source Philip Stubbes) – Election followed by a visit to the church during which religious ceremonies were parodied Today’s perceptions • Cultural Distance • • • • ﾑ Old jokes “signposts in foreign alphabet” ﾑ We often laugh for different reasons ﾑ Perceptions of laughter change ﾑ Constant: laughter as a form of coping with anxiety, embarrassment, etc. THEORIES • Freud – laughter is an expression of the unconscious • Bakhtin – Carnival spirit was separate from official celebrations; it offered ‘a second world outside officialdom’ – Carnival laughter attacks all people, including the participants of the carnival – Carnival often brings things to the materialistic and bodily levels.