What pleasures did Plautus's heroic tricksters provide their original audience? How should we understand the compelling mix of rebellion and social conservatism that Plautus offers? Through a close reading of four plays representing the full range of his work (Menaechmi, Casina, Persa, and Captivi), Kathleen McCarthy develops an innovative model of Plautine comedy and its social effects. She concentrates on how the plays are shaped by the interaction of two comic modes: the socially conservative mode of naturalism and the potentially subversive mode of farce. Scholars interested in Plautine theater will be rewarded by the detailed analyses of the plays, while those more broadly interested in social and cultural history will find much that is useful in McCarthy's new way of grasping the elusive ideological effects of comedy.
- ISBN10 1282087142
- ISBN13 9781282087149
- Publish Date 1 January 2009 (first published 1 October 2000)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 9 June 2015
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Princeton University Press
- Edition Revised ed.
- Format eBook
- Pages 248
- Language English