CLAS 3516

Ancient Comedy ranges from the boisterous and bawdy plays of Old Comedy through the domestic and romantic ‘tragicomedies’ of Euripides to the boy-meets-girl stories of Greek and Roman New Comedy. This course examines the origins and development of the comic genre in the Greek and Roman world through a study of the plays of Aristophanes, Euripides, Menander, Plautus, and Terence in translation. It considers the nature of comedy and its function within society as well as the basic techniques and conventions of the genre itself. Topics to be studied include the ‘comic hero’; comic stereotypes; types of humor; the relationship between actor & spectator.