Comic Business: Theatricality, Dramatic Technique, and Performance Contexts of Aristophanic Comedy

By Martin Revermann

Comic Business situates Aristophanic comedy in the context of competitive (re)performance culture in 5th- and 4th-century Greece. It seeks to illuminate how the dazzling busyness of Aristophanic comedy is the creation of a carefully manipulating craftsman trying to outdo his rivals in the
fierce competition of the dramatic festivals. Theoretically informed by theatre semiotics and frame-based models of conceptualizing the theatrical event, it analyzes in a number of case studies how theatrical resources of all kinds are utilized in order to generate theatrical meaning as well as
capture and sustain audience interest. The approach therefore combines philological analysis with methodologies developed in Theatre Studies. Special attention is given to the visual dimension of theatrical communication. Material from comparator traditions is brought to bear, as is the evidence of
the pictorial record.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019815271X
• ISBN13: 9780198152712
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 416 Pages