Strategies of Verbal Humour in Menander’s Dyskolos

From Linguistics to Dramaturgy

Bibliographic Data

ID20044545
AuthorsAntonis K Petrides (0000-0002-5399-9343, corresponding author)
Year2024
Pages347-392
Publication date2024-04-22
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenuePlay of Language in Ancient Greek Comedy (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherDe Gruyter (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/9783111295282-012
OpenAlexW4395050282
ISBN9783111295282
LanguageEN
References cited28

This chapter uses the advances in Humour Studies to examine Menander's techniques of verbal humour in his play Dyskolos. Menander's credible pretensions to linguistic naturalism render his scripts privileged data pools for studying Greek conversational humour in the late fourth century BCE. However, in Menander, the nature and the distribution of the various verbal humour mechanisms and idiosyncrasies to a play's characters transcends naturalism, constructing an artificial theatrical discourse of ethical and thematic import. The chapter's main points are the following: (a) that on the surface, Menander uses verbal humour naturalistically, mirroring its occurrence and function in natural conversational contexts; (b) that dramaturgically speaking, Menander's conversational humour is characterisational and relational, contributing to the construction and individualisation of character and drawing connecting lines between various dramatis personae; and (c) that its function is also thematic, distributed to characters in such a way as to bolster the fundamental dichotomies of the play (city/country, rich/poor, slave/free)

Art · Dramaturgy · Linguistics · Literature · Byzantine Studies and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · Philosophy · Psychology

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