The main point is the gender based power struggle.
The materials we go over in class:Mama, There is a man in your bedA funny thingDecameronDante's InfernoLysistrataBergson's Laughter
The terms we used are also attached.Click here for more on this paper.......
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C/LT 320I: Notes on Greek Comedy and Lysistrata Waters/Fall 2011 Pretext for Aristophanes’ Lysistrata (411 BCE) Homeric Epics Phallic Rituals Dithyramb Satyr Plays Dionysus Peloponnesian War (Athens v. Sparta) Characteristics of Greek Old Comedy Agon Parabasis Episodes Alazon Eiron Techne/Skene Orchestra Comic Effect in Lysistrata Scatology Reification Anachronism Anthropomorphism Early Comic Theory Aristotle, Poetics (ca. 350 BCE): Mimesis, Catharsis, Hubris C/LT 320I: Notes on Greek Comedy and Lysistrata Waters/Fall 2011 Pretext for Aristophanes’ Lysistrata (411 BCE) Homeric Epics Phallic Rituals Dithyramb Satyr Plays Dionysus Peloponnesian War (Athens v. Sparta) Characteristics of Greek Old Comedy Agon Parabasis Episodes Alazon Eiron Techne/Skene Orchestra Comic Effect in Lysistrata Scatology Reification Anachronism Anthropomorphism Early Comic Theory Aristotle, Poetics (ca. 350 BCE): Mimesis, Catharsis, Hubris
Attachments:Click here for more on this paper.......
Comedy’s
Greatest Hits That We Have Not Discussed in Any Detail
Aristophanes,
The Clouds, The Frogs, The Wasps (other nasty plays, less sex though, about
Athenian politics)
Menander,
Dyskolos (published in 1959!)
Plautus, Rope,
Pot of Gold, Pseudolus, Casina (other good Plautus sitcoms from 200 years ago)
Terence, The
Mother-in-Law, The Eunuch (the other Roman Comedy guy, like Andrew from Wham!
but who still had some hits)
Dante, Divine
Comedy (maybe the most influential work
of creative writing ever; how has it influenced, uh, everything from Hieronymus
Bosch to Hellboy)
Chaucer,
Canterbury Tales (and yes, you can compare it to Knight's Tale)
Ariosto, Lena
(alpha hooker with heart of gold play)
Calderon, Life
is a Dream (wise-ass prince is convinced
he has been dreaming his good life)
Machiavelli,
Mandrake, Clizia (along with The Prince, the guy wrote some good sex comedy)
de Pizan, City
of Ladies (think of it as The View ca. 1500)
Cervantes, Don
Quixote (musical version called Man of La Mancha)
Shakespeare,
Midsummer Night’s Dream (no for term pape, though!), Tempest, Comedy of Errors,
Twelfth Night, Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, Love’s Labours Lost
Jonson, Volpone
(based on Plautus, modern versions called The Sly Fox)
Aphra Behn, The
Royal Slave, The Rover (maybe the first feminist comic dramatist; very good
essayist on her method as well)
Swift,
Gulliver’s Travels, A Modest Proposal
(voyages of Lemuel G. and a suggestion that famine is curable by eating one's
one kids!)
Rabelais,
Gargantua and Pantagruel (two giants, father and son, have lots of semi-gross
adventures 500 years ago)
Goldoni, Servant
of Two Masters (along with Moliere, a master of the commedia dell'arte form but
tailored for an Italian audience)
Moliere, The
Misanthrope, Imaginary Invalid (a couple more masterworks by the guy who wrote
Tartuffe)
Diderot, Jacques
the Fatalist and His Master (the best work by another French master satiric
dramatist; other two are Beaumarchais and Marivaux
Pope, Rape of
the Lock (epic poem about a bad haircut)
Fielding, Tom
Jones (excellent 1960s film version)
Sheridan,
Rivals(funny sex comedy with the great character Mrs. Malaprop)
Sterne, Tristram
Shandy (really good recent film version)
Byron, Don Juan
(the world's greatest lover)
Franklin, Poor
Richard’s Almanac (quite subversive, Franklin was not the kindly old gent from
the $)
Irving,
Knickerbocker Tales (Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip van Winkle)
Twain,
Huckleberry Finn (but you can't use it on your term paper)
Carroll, Through
the Looking Glass (Alice in Wonderland)
Shaw, Pygmalion
(My Fair Lady)
Wilde,
Importance of Being Earnest (very interesting recent film version plus one from
the 1950s0
Chekhov, Cherry
Orchard (1904, comic drama about the doom of a Russian family)
Feydeau, A Flea
in Her Ear (French sex farce of all time)
Waugh, Loved One
(1960s film version; weird)
Lewis, Screwtape
Letters (Narnia author's dialogue b/w devils)
Gilbert and
Sullivan, Pirates of Penzance, Mikado (comic light opera, lots of versions and
references visually)
Kafka, Trial
(weird Orson Welles version from the late 1950s)
Orwell, Animal
Farm (weird animated adaptation from a few years back w/talking dog) no-go for
term paper!
Kazantzakis,
Zorba the Greek (great film version from early 1960s; really disturbing)
Calvino,
Cosmicomics (surrealist Italian short stories)
Bulgakov, Heart
of a Dog (bizarre satire of post-Bolshevik Russia
Von Kleist, The
Broken Jug (yes, Germany CAN create comedy)
Marquis, archy
and mehitabel (about a philosophical cockroach and an alcoholic cat)
Hasek, Good
Soldier Svjek (Czech novel from WWI; very influential in Europe)
Parker, What
Fresh Hell is This? (wickedly nasty poems from a Roaring 20s female POV)
West, Miss
Lonelyhearts (root of a famous 80s novel/film called Bright Lights, Big City;
50s film too)
Ionesco,
Rhinoceros (one of the great absurdist dramas; incredible filmed stage version
with Zero Mostel)
Frayn , Noises
Off (great backstage farce; funny film version)
Hecht and
MacArthur, The Front Page (lots of versions on film, His Girl Friday is best)
Thurber, The
Secret Life of Walter Mitty (totally altered film version b/c of WWII)
Heller, Catch-22
(unadaptable novel but Mike Nichols tried in 1970 and almost succeeded)
Albee, Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (scabrous play about a marriage breaking up; wicked
film)
Shepherd, In God
We Trust--All Others Pay Cash (basis for A Christmas Story)
DeLillo, White
Noise (great satire of political correctness and academia)
Allen, Without
Feathers, Side Effects (before he became a film director and World's Best
Stepdad!)
Vonnegut,
Slaughterhouse-Five (weird 70s film version)
Irving, The
World According to Garp (80s film version with Robin Williams; odd)
Mamet, Sexual
Perversity in Chicago (became Brat Pack film About Last Night)
Kundera,
Unbearable Lightness of Being Prague
Spring story about a love triangle (good film adapation)
Amado, Dona Flor
and Her Two Husbands (good film version from Brazil; lots of Carnavale stuff)
Sembene, Xala (a
rich guy in Senegal thinks he is cursed to be impotent)
Westlake, The
Hot Rock (unsung novelist who writes about a cursed thief named Dortmunder)
Bushnell, Sex
and the City (Carrie was not always Sarah Jessica)
Spiegelman, Maus
(graphic novel allegorizing the Holocaust)
Matt Groening,
Life in Hell, The Simpsons (the more you luck, the more is in there)
Buckley, Thank
You for Smoking (good movie; his new novel Boomsday is pretty evil also)
Sandra Bernhard,
Confessions of a Pretty Lady, Without You I’m Nothing (iconoclastic feminist
performer)
Francis Veber,
Le Jeu de Cons/The Dinner Game, Les Comperes/Fathers’ Day, Le Chevre/Pure Luck
Les Fugitifs/Three
Fugitives, [recent LA Times article on Veber’s career] French Comic
Voice/Hollywood Homogenization
David Lynch,
Wild at Heart (film) compared with Barry Gifford’s novel of the same name (plus
other Sailor and Lula stories).
“Ricky Jay and
His 52 Assistants” (performance video), Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women
(history of specialty performance)
MASH comparison
among Richard Hooker novel, Robert Altman film and TV show
Mel Watkins, On
the Real Side (history of African-American standup) vis. Richard Pryor
performance videos
compare to Chris
Rock in his various personae: Bring the Pain, Bigger and Blacker, HBO host,
Lethal Weapon IV
Sam Kinison,
“Louder than Hell” (performance vid) Brother Sam bio by Bill Kinison (sacred
vs. profane)
Michele Serros,
Chicana Falsa, How To Be a Chicana Role Model
Sandra
Tsing-Loh, If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home Now plus Bad Sex with Bud Kemp and
essays :Chinese German female POV in LA
Sherman
Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto
Fistfight in Heaven plus film version Smoke Signals (Chris Eyre: 1998) and Pow Wow Highway : Native American
perspective
Radio: Ira
Glass, “This American Life,"
Garrison Keillor, ‘Prairie Home Companion," Bob and Ray (radio satire), Harry Shearer,
"Le Show" (plus any old radio sitcom or variety hour analyzed from a contemporary aesthetic)
Old-time TV: I
Love Lucy, Sgt. Bilko, All in the Family, heck Brady Bunch sitcom v. film
Contemporary
Internet Humor eg Onion, McSweeney's
C/LT 320I: Notes on Greek Comedy and Lysistrata Waters/Fall 2011
Pretext for Aristophanes’ Lysistrata
(411 BCE)
Homeric Epics
Phallic Rituals
Dithyramb
Satyr Plays
Dionysus
Peloponnesian War (Athens v.
Sparta)
Characteristics of Greek Old Comedy
Agon
Parabasis
Episodes
Alazon
Eiron
Techne/Skene
Orchestra
Comic Effect in Lysistrata
Scatology
Reification
Anachronism
Anthropomorphism
Early Comic Theory
Aristotle, Poetics (ca. 350 BCE): Mimesis, Catharsis, Hubris
C/LT 320I: Notes on Miles Gloriosus and Roman
Comedy
Waters
Overview
Miles Gloriosus (The Braggart Soldier) is one of the
finest examples of Roman Comedy. Written
by the leading Roman comic playwright, Titus Maccius Plautus, around 200BC, the
plot of Miles Gloriosus revolves around the conflict over the affections
of a beautiful young girl, who loves a handsome, charming, good-hearted young
man, but who is under the control of the wicked but powerful Miles
Gloriosus. Assisting the young lovers as
they try to get together is a clever slave, who sees in his master Miles
Gloriosus’s overpowering lust for the young girl a possible opportunity to gain
his own freedom.
Plot Structure
The play is broken up into five distinct segments:
1. An initial scene between Miles Gloriosus and the clever
slave
2. A delayed prologue in which the clever slave (the lead
actor in the play) addresses the audience directly
3.The first plot, which involves convincing a villainous,
but dim-witted, rival slave that he has not really seen the young girl kissing
the young man; rather the rival slave is tricked into thinking he has seen the
young girl’s (fictitious) identical twin sister. The first plot ends with the rival slave
having a nervous breakdown.
4. A brief “intermission” comic dialogue between the young
man and his neighbor, a feisty old man who is wise in the ways of loveClick here for more on this paper.......
5. The second plot, which is the major story of the
play. The clever slave enlists the help
of the young man, the feisty old neighbor, a couple good-hearted hookers, and a
cook with a quick temper and a very sharp butcher knife. This group of conspirators, through various
con games and disguises and outright lies, tricks Miles Gloriosus into giving
up all his property, his military status, his money, his slaves plus the young
girl for the promise of unlimited sex with wild women. The play ends with Miles Gloriosus stripped
naked and threatened with castration unless he gives up rights to the girl plus
gives the clever slave his freedom.
After capitulating, a ruined, humiliated Miles Gloriosus admits that he
deserves his woeful fate and cautions his audience against making the mistakes
he has made.Click here for more on this paper.......
Terms and Themes
Pseudolus (false light) archetype
Fabula palliata
Fabula togata
Contaminatio
Ephesus
Greek New Comedy
The Grouchy Old Man, Menander (c.300 BC)
The passive agon
The comic anti-hero
A modern adaptation: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to
the Forum
(Directed by Richard Lester, 1966)
Influences on contemporary situation comedyClick here for more on this paper.......
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