Aristophanes and the poetics of surprise

Thesis

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the variety, the mechanisms, and the poetological intention of the effect of surprise in Aristophanic comedy, addressing the phenomenon not as a self-evident or unselfconscious element of comedy as a genre, but as an elaborate system which characterises the style of the specific dramatist. More precisely, the thesis analyses Aristophanes’ most prominent verbal, thematic, and theatrical modes of surprise from a typological perspective, and interprets...

Expand abstract

Authors: Kanellakis, D

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Keywords: semiotics; Greek comedy; humour; performance; reception; Aristophanes; typology; poetics
• Subjects: Classics