Aristophanes and the Carnival of Genres
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A01=Charles Platter
Aristophanes
Author_Charles Platter
Bakhtin
Carnival
Category=DSBB
Category=DSG
Classics
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eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Greek literature
Literary Theory
Old Comedy
Product details
- ISBN 9780801885273
- Weight: 567g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 26 Feb 2007
- Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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The comedies of Aristophanes are known not only for their boldly imaginative plots but for the ways in which they incorporate and orchestrate a wide variety of literary genres and speech styles. Unlike the writers of tragedy, who prefer a uniformly elevated tone, Aristophanes articulates his dramatic dialogue with striking literary and linguistic juxtapositions, producing a carnivalesque medley of genres that continually forces both audience and reader to readjust their perspectives. In this energetic and original study, Charles Platter interprets the complexities of Aristophanes' work through the lens of Mikhail Bakhtin's critical writing. This book charts a new course for Aristophanic comedy, taking its lead from the work of Bakhtin. Bakhtin describes the way multiple voices-vocabularies, tones, and styles of language originating in different social classes and contexts-appear and interact within literary texts. He argues that the dynamic quality of literature arises from the dialogic relations that exist among these voices.
Although Bakhtin applied his theory primarily to the epic and the novel, Platter finds in his work profound implications for Aristophanic comedy, where stylistic heterogeneity is the genre's lifeblood.
Charles Platter is a professor of classics at the University of Georgia.
