Comic exemplarity : a study of Aristophanes' paradeigmata

Abstract

This work investigates the mythical and historical paradeigmata in Aristophanes’ extant comedies, in order to assess the practice of exemplarity in comedy and broaden our knowledge of exemplarity in 5th century literature.

In the first part of this work (ch. 1-5), I highlight significant aspects of the comic paradeigmata in terms of formal structures, rhetorical processes and functions, through the analysis of 5 case studies (Lys. 271-285; Lys. 671-682; Nub. 900-907, 1043-1057, 1061-1072, 1075-1082; Eq. 810-819; Av. 1553-1564). This analysis portrays comic paradeigmata as a specific articulation of exemplarity (ch. 6). I argue that the comic poet maintains the traditional use of paradeigmata as means of persuasion and also develops additional functions, required by the literary genre, namely dramatic advancement and humour.

In the second part of this work (ch. 7-9), I reconstruct the relations of exemplarity in comedy and in other coeval literary genres, i.e. tragedy, historiography and oratory. This comparative analysis reveals close connections between comic and tragic exemplarity, as well as occasional contacts between the paradeigmata in comedy and those in historiography and oratory. These results suggest a progressive evolution of exemplarity in comedy. A communal use of paradeigmata, which meets the demands imposed by the dramatic performance, seems to have been developed both in tragedy and comedy. A further development appears to be typical of comedy, which has absorbed some features of the paradeigmata in other genres and created the function of humour. Overall, this investigation shows the deep interactions, in terms of paradeigmata, of comedy and contemporary literary genres, and emphasizes the relevance of comedy to reconstruct exemplarity in the 5th century.