These thirteen essays combine classical scholars' interest in
theatrical production with a growing interdisciplinary inquiry into
the urban contexts of literary production. Taking as their
departure point the annual comic competitions at the Athenian
dramatic festivals, the contributors examine how the polis--as a
place, a political entity, a specific social organization, and a
set of ideological representations--was enacted on stage from the
middle of the fifth century B.C. through the fourth.
Applying a variety of critical approaches to Athenian comedy, these
essays are grouped around three broad categories: utopianism,
fissures in the social fabric, and the new polis of fourth-century
comedy. The contributors explore the sociopolitical and material
contexts of the works discussed and trace the genre into the fourth
century, when it underwent profound changes. Simultaneously a study
of classical Greek literature and an analysis of cultural
production, this collection reveals how for two centuries Athens
itself was transformed, staged as comedy, and, ultimately, shaped
by contemporary material, social, and ideological forces.
The contributors are Elizabeth Bobrick, Gregory Crane, Gregory
Dobrov, Malcolm Heath, Jeffrey Henderson, Timothy P. Hofmeister,
Thomas K. Hubbard, David Konstan, Heinz-GAnther Nesselrath, Frank
Romer, Ralph M. Rosen, Niall W. Slater, and John Wilkins.
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