The Cambridge Companion to Roman Comedy

Provides a comprehensive critical engagement with Roman comedy and its reception presented by leading international scholars in accessible and up-to-date chapters.

Martin T. Dinter (Edited by)

9780521173889, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 4 April 2019

446 pages
22.7 x 15.3 x 2.2 cm, 0.73 kg

'This companion fulfills its function in exhibiting an exceptional level of scholarly engagement in its examination of the 'world', 'fabric', 'sociology', and 'reception' of Roman Comedy … well-balanced mixture of specialized studies and sophisticated surveys is both stimulating and encourages scholars and students alike to investigate and critique the plays themselves.' Cassandra Tran, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

The Cambridge Companion to Roman Comedy provides a comprehensive critical introduction to Roman comedy and its reception through more than twenty accessible and up-to-date chapters by leading international scholars. This book defines the fundamentals of Roman comedy by examining its literary and comic technique as well as its stagecraft and music, and then traces the genre's influence through the centuries. Roman comedy has served as a model for writers as well as artists ranging from Shakespeare to Molière and from Martin Luther to Cole Porter. Just as the Middle Ages spawned Christianised versions of Terence's comedies, in which harlots find God rather than a husband and young men become martyrs rather than never-do-well lovers, the twentieth century has also given us its take on Roman comedy with Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and numerous modern versions of Plautus' Amphitryon.

List of extant plays by Plautus and Terence
Introduction: Roman comedy Alison Sharrock
Part I. The World of Roman Comedy: 1. Plautus and Terence in their Roman contexts Gesine Manuwald
2. Native Italian drama and its influence on Plautus Costas Panayotakis
3. Roman comedy and the poetics of adaptation Mario Telò
4. The politics of Roman comedy Robert Germany
Part II. The Fabric of Roman Comedy: 5. Stage action in Roman comedy C. W. Marshall
6. Music and metre Timothy J. Moore
7. Comic technique Isabella Tardin Cardoso
8. Metatheatre David Christenson
9. The language of Roman comedy Evangelos Karakasis
Part III. The Sociology of Roman Comedy: 10. Fathers and sons Martin T. Dinter
11. Slaves and Roman comedy William Fitzgerald
12. Mothers and whores Dorota Dutsch
13. Gods and Roman comedy Anna Clark
14. Legal laughter Andreas Bartholomä
15. Family finances Elaine Fantham
Part IV. The Reception of Roman Comedy: 16. The reception of Republican comedy in antiquity Gesine Manuwald
17. The manuscripts and illustration of Plautus and Terence Beatrice Radden Keefe
18. The anti-Terentian dramas of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim Marek Thue Kretschmer
19. Roman comedy in early modern England Robert S. Miola
20. Roman comedy in early modern Italy and France Céline Candiard
21. Roman comedy in Germany (from humanism to Lessing) Florian Hurka
22. Roman comedy on stage and screen in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries Céline Candiard.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Shakespeare plays [DDS]