Beskrivelse
The choruses of Tragedy have in the last couple of decades been the subject of much scrutiny and debate, and lately even the dithyrambic choruses have been investigated, the comic chorus, on the other hand, seems to have overseen in this new choral enthusiasm.In this paper I offer some preliminary means for the understanding of the performance of the choruses of Aristophanes. Much attention has been given to the parabasis, the metatheatrical part of his comedy, but I will try to give a more overall picture of a comic chorus in performance.
A comedy of Aristophanes is a complex and diverse experience, where the audience is presented a great array of characters and spaces, unstable in their own charactization, giving the performance a discontinuous run. Even the chorus alters their attitude (from enemy to friend), normally due to persuasion by the main character, but visually they remain the same (almost), and this visual continuity creates a fascinating atmosphere within which the comedy can unfold its discontinuity, and in the end the comic chorus and the main character will create a epinikian space, which enclose the audience, releasing the comic universe out on the benches on the south slope of the Acropolis surrounding it.
As an example I will focus on the chorus of the Knights which shows a great agility of theatricality (probably physically as well) as they recreate their own identity of horsemen, clad as such, but loosing sight of this costume to be horses, ships, Athenians and more. The power of the word is strong in Greek drama, but this does not allow us to forget the visual aspect of the theatrical experience. It is the play of this dichotomy of the comic chorus, I set out to study.
| Periode | 5 apr. 2009 |
|---|---|
| Begivenhedstitel | The Classical Association Annual Conference 2009 |
| Begivenhedstype | Konference |
| Arrangør | The Classical Association |
| Placering | Glasgow, StorbritannienVis på kort |