ARISTOPHANES' OLD-AND-NEW COMEDY: VOLUME 1, SIX ESSAYS IN PERSPECTIVE.

RECKFORD, Kenneth J.

ISBN 10: 0807817201 / ISBN 13: 9780807817209

Published by University Of North Carolina Press,, Chapel Hill,, 1987

About this Item

First Edition. Hardback. Dust Jacket. Large 8vo. pp xiv, 567. Original publisher's grey cloth, lettered black at the spine. ISBN: 0807817201 Fine in near fine dust jacket.

Seller Inventory # C63209

Bibliographic Details

• Title: ARISTOPHANES' OLD-AND-NEW COMEDY: VOLUME 1, SIX ESSAYS IN PERSPECTIVE.
• Publisher: University Of North Carolina Press,, Chapel Hill,
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807817201
• ISBN 13: 9780807817209
• Binding: Hardback
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Aristophanes

About this title

Synopsis

This startling and original study emerged from Kenneth Rockford's wish to vindicate Aristophanes'Clouds against detractors. As a result of years of rereading and teaching Aristophanes, he realized that theClouds could not be defended in an analysis of that play in isolation. A better approach, he decided, would be to define a comic perspective within which Aristophanes' comedies in general as well as theClouds in particular could be appreciated.

This first volume of Reckford's defense examines the comedies as a whole in a series of defining essays, each with its own dominant concern and method of approach. The author begins by exploring not the usual questions of Aristophanes' political attitudes and his place in the development of comedy, but rather the festive, celebratory, and Dionysian nature of Old Comedy. Here and throughout the book Reckford illustrates Aristophanes' form of comedy with analogies to Rabelais, Shakespeare, Charlie Chaplin,Alice in Wonderland, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

In the remaining essays Reckford goes beyond the usual Freudian approaches, reinterpreting the comic catharsis as a clarification of wishing and hoping. He also explores the growth of plays from comic idea to comic performance, in ways reflected in Tom Stoppard's plays today. Only then are Aristophanes' basic political loyalties described, as well as the place of his old- and-new comedy within the history of the genre.

In a book that is as much about comedy generally as it is about Aristophanes specifically, some plays are treated more fully than others. Reckford discusses theWasps at length, comparing the symbolic transformations and comic recognitions in the play with dream experience and dream interpretation. He also analyzes thePeace, the Acharians, the Birds, and the Frogs. Reckford's vindication of theClouds will appear in the second volume of his defense, Clouds of Glory.

Reckford's playful translations preserve the puns and anachronisms of Aristophanes, maintaining the playwright's comic feeling and tone. Combining traditional classical scholarship with a variety of literary, psychological, and anthropological approaches, he has written a study that will appeal to both the academic audience and the general reader who cares about comedy.

Originally published in 1987.

A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

About the Author

Kenneth J. Reckford is professor of classics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.