Sunoikisis Greek 293/393: Greek Comedy
Agenda, Fall 2014
Seminar Consultant: Jeffrey S. Rusten (Cornell University)
Course Director: Ryan C. Fowler (CHS)
This work by the Sunoikisis consortium is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.
Seminar Participants:
·  Monica Berti is a Classicist and Digital Humanist at the Universität Leipzig.
·  D. Ben DeSmidt is an Associate Professor of Great Ideas and Classics at Carthage College.
·  Ryan C. Fowler is the CHS Sunoikisis Fellow in Curricular Development.
·  Heather Waddell Gruber is an Assistant Professor of Classical Studies at Concordia College.
·  Hal Haskell is a Professor at Southwestern University.
·  Ben V. Hicks received his Ph.D from the University of Texas at Austin in 2013.
·  Julie Langford is an Associate Professor at University of South Florida.
·  Kenny Morrell is an Associate Professor at Rhodes College.
·  Polyvia Parara is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland.
·  Arum Park is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Brigham Young University.
·  Danilo Piana is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Classics at the Johns Hopkins University.
·  Joseph Romero is an Associate Professor at the University of Mary Washington.
·  Jeffrey S. Rusten is a Professor in the Department of Classics at Cornell University.
·  Polyxeni Strolonga is a researcher at the Americam School of Classical Studies in Athens.
·  Heather Vincent is an Associate Professor of Classics at Eckerd College.

Basic Plays: Birds (In Greek), Clouds and Ecclesiazusae (mostly in English) with some attention to the other plays also.

Bring Henderson’s Loeb for reading in translation with ability to check Greek instantly:

•  Volume 1(Achs, Knights)

•  Volume 2 (Clouds, Wasps, Peace)

•  Volume 3 (Birds, Lysistrata, Women at the Thesmophoria)

•  Volume 4 (Frogs, Assemblywomen, Wealth)

For the Greek bring also Dunbar (student edition), Dover and Ussher (all Oxford)

Thurday, June 12

Time / Event / Location
8:00-9:00 a.m. / Breakfast / Dining Room
9:00-10:30 a.m. / First Session / House A
General Introductions and Goals
•  Introductions
•  Course tour
•  Assessment update
10:30-11:00 a.m. / Coffee Break / House A
11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. / Second Session / House A
Translations I: Meter and Obscenity
Primary Readings:
20-minute presentations comparing translations by Rogers, Henderson, Parker, and Ruden:
•  Lysistrata 1-230 (Prologue, Lysistrata and the women discuss their plan): Berti, DeSmidt, Piana, Romero
•  387-607 (Agon between the proboulos and Lysistrata): Hicks, Vincent, Langford
•  830-953 (Kinesias and Myrrhine): Morrell, Park, Strolonga
•  1043-1070+ 1189-1215 (the chorus “invites” the audience home):Haskell, Crane, Biles, Parara
Secondary Readings:
1. Parker, D. 1992 (fall)-1993 (spring). "WAA [William A. Arrowsmith]: An Intruded Gloss," Arion 2.2-3: 251-56 (the story of the “Michigan Aristophanes”)
[Haskell and Vincent]
2. Roberts, D. 2008. "Translation and the 'surreptitious classic:' obscenity and translatability," in A. Lianeri and V. Zajko, eds. Translation and the classic : identity as change in the history of culture. (Oxford; New York) 278-311.
[Park and Piana]
3. Review of Sarah Ruden’s Lysistrata by Barbara Clayton:http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2003/2003-12-25.html
[Berti and Parara]
12:30-2:00 p.m. / Lunch / Dining Room
2:00-3:30 p.m. / Third Session / House A
Translations II: Anachronisms
Secondary Readings:
1. Walsh, Philip Alexander. 2008. Comedy and conflict: The modern reception of Aristophanes. Brown University Dissertation. Pp. 128ff, 142ff. (On B. B. Rogers and W. S. Gilbert)
[Romero and Biles]
2. Reynolds, Tim. 1980. "Aristophanes' Peace." In The Tenth muse : classical drama in translation. ed. Charles Doria. 315-420. Chicago
[Crane and Strolonga]
3. Scharffenberger, E. 2002. "Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae and the Challenges of Comic Translation: the Case of William Arrowsmith's Euripides Agonistes," American Journal of Philology 123: 429-63
[Langford and Hicks]
4. Rita Dove, "Arrow" p. 49-50 in Grace Notes (New York 1989)
[DeSmidt]
3:30-4:00 p.m. / Coffee Break / House A
4:00-5:30 p.m. / Fourth Session
Structure: Birds overview
Secondary Readings:
1. Zimmermann, B. 2010. "Structure and Meter." In Brill's companion to the study of Greek comedy. ed. Gregory W. Dobrov. 455-469. Leiden ; Boston: Brill. Read pp. 457-463 especially closely
[Vincent and Hicks]
2. "The Agon of clouds”, pp. 209-224 in Revermann, Martin. 2006. Comic business : theatricality, dramatic technique, and performance contexts of Aristophanic comedy. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.
[Biles and Langford]
3. “From Thamyris to Aristophanes: The competitive poetics of the comic parabasis”, pp. 12-55 in Biles, Zachary. 2010. Aristophanes and the Poetics of Competition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[Parara and Crane]
6:00-8:00 p.m. / Dinner / TBA

Friday, June 13

Time / Event / Location
8:00-9:00 a.m. / Breakfast / Dining Room
9:00-10:30 a.m. / First Session / House A
Space in Birds, Peace, Acharnians, Frogs vs others
Secondary Readings:
1. Said, Suzanne. 1997. "L'espace d'Athènes dans les comédies d'Aristophane." In Aristophane: la langue, la scène, la cité : actes du colloque de Toulouse, 17-19 mars 1994. eds. Pascal Thiercy and Michel Menu. 339-360. Bari: Levante. Colloque Aristophane (1994 : Toulouse, France).
[Piana and DeSmidt]
2. Crane, Gregory. 1997. "Oikos and agora: mapping the polis in Aristophanes' « Wasps »." In The City as Comedy. ed. Gregory W. Dobrov. 198-229. University of North Carolina Pr.
[Park and Crane]
3. Revermann, “Space” pp. 107-128 in Comic Business
[Strolonga and Haskell]
10:30-11:00 a.m. / Coffee Break / House A
11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. / Second Session / House A
Choral identity, animals, ethnic and political groups
Secondary Readings:
1. Zimmermann, Bernhard. 1998. "Chor und Handlung in der griechischen Komödie." In Der Chor im antiken und modernen Drama. eds. Peter Riemer and Bernhard Zimmermann. 49-59. Stuttgart: Verlag J.B. Metzler.
[Berti and Morrell]
2. Payne, Mark. “Becoming something else -- Beyond the pale: joining the society of animals in Aristophanes, Herman Melville and Louis-Ferdinand Céline“, in 2010. The animal part: human and other animals in the poetic imagination. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
[Romero and Hicks]
3. Segal, Charles P. 1996. "Aristophanes' Cloud-chorus." In Oxford readings in Aristophanes. ed. Erich Segal. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
[Langford and Biles]
12:30-2:00 p.m. / Lunch / Dining Room
2:00-3:30 p.m. / Third Session / House A
Common Men and Comic Heroes
Secondary Readings:
1. Ehrenberg, Victor. 1951. The People of Aristophanes: A Sociology of Attic Old Comedy. London.73-94 "The farmers"
[Morrell and Vincent]
2. "Comic Heroism" pp 21-58, in Whitman, Cedric H. 1964. Aristophanes and the Comic Hero. Cambridge, Mass. Martin Classical Lectures, Vol. XIX.
[DeSmidt and Piana]
3. Henderson, Jeffrey. 1997. "Mass versus elite and the comic heroism of Peisetairos." In The city as comedy : society and representation in Athenian drama. ed. Gregory W. Dobrov. 135-148. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press.
[Strolonga and Haskell]
3:30-4:00 p.m. / Coffee Break / House A
4:00-5:30 p.m. / Fourth Session / House A
Uncommon Women: Ecclesiazusae, Thesmophoriazusae, Lysistrata
Secondary Readings:
1. Henderson, Jeffrey. 1987. "Older women in Attic Old Comedy." TAPA 117: 105-129.
[Park and Berti]
2. “Lysistrata” from Konstan, David. 1995. Greek Comedy and Ideology. Oxford
[Crane and Parara]
3. Stroup, Sarah Culpepper. 2004. "Designing women: Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and the “hetairization” of the Greek wife." Arethusa 37: 37 - 73.
[Hicks and Biles]
4. Zeitlin, Froma I. 1999. "Utopia and myth in Aristophanes’ Ecclesiazusae." In Contextualizing classics: Ideology, performance, dialogue. eds. Thomas Falkner, Nancy Felson and David Konstan. 69 - 88. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
[Vincent and Langford]
6:00-8:00 p.m. / Dinner / TBA

Saturday, June 14

Time / Event / Location
8:00-9:00 am / Breakfast / Dining Room
9:00-10:30 am / First Session / House A
Public Discourse
Secondary Readings:
1. Heath, M. 1997. "Aristophanes and the discourse of politics." In The city as comedy : society and representation in Athenian drama. ed. Gregory W. Dobrov. 230-49. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press.
[Morrell and Park]
2. Henderson, Jeffrey. 2012. "Old Comedy and Popular History." In History without Historians: Greeks and their Pasts in the Archaic and Classical Eras. eds. J. Marincola, L. Llewellyn-Jones and C. Maciver. Edinburgh
[Berti and DeSmidt]
3. Rusten, Jeffrey. 2013. "Political discourse and the assembly in four plays of Aristophanes." In Retórica y discurso en el teatro griego. eds. Milagros Quijada Sagredo and M. C. Encinas Reguero. 249-260. Madrid: Ediciones Clásicas.
[Piana and Haskell]
10:30-11:00 a.m. / Coffee Break / House A
11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. / Second Session / House A
Cultural and Domestic Discourse
Secondary Readings:
1. Said, Suzanne. 1996. "The Assemblywomen: women, economy and politics." In Oxford readings in Aristophanes. ed. Erich Segal. 282-313. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. Translation of her 1979 article: Caution: many essays have been abridged and footnotes shortened, most acknowledgements state "those using this essay for scholarly purposes are requested to consult the original edition".
[Parara andRomero]
2. Olson, S. Douglas. 1990. "Economics and ideology in Aristophanes’ Wealth." HSCP 93: 223 - 242.
[Biles and Vincent]
3. Hunter, R. L. 2009. "Aristophanes' Frogs and the critical tradition." In Critical moments in classical literature : studies in the ancient view of literature and its uses. 1-9. Cambridge, UK ; New York: Cambridge University Press.
[Langford and Crane]
12:30-2:00 p.m. / Lunch / Dining Room
2:00-3:30 p.m. / Third Session / House A
Reception
Secondary Readings:
1. Petersen, Anna. 2008. "Chewing the fat: Lucian's invention of the comic dialogue." In International Symposium on Lucianus of Samosata. ed. M. Çevik. 57-68. Adiyaman Üniversitesi (Turquía).
[Hicks and Strolonga]
2. Carlson, Marvin. 2013. "The Arab Aristophanes." Comparative Drama 47 (2): 151-166.
[Haskell and Park]
3. Walsh, Philip. 2009. "A study in reception: the British debates over Aristophanes’ politics and influence." Classical Receptions Journal 1 (1): 55-72.
[DeSmidt and Berti]
3:30-4:00 p.m. / Coffee Break / House A
4:00-5:30 p.m. / Fourth Session / House A
Final Preparations: Assignments and Schedule
•  Discussion of the lecture topics and lecturers
•  Setting the calendar for midterm and final essay examinations
6:00 p.m. / Dinner / TBA