Rhetoric, Comedy, and the Violence of Language in Aristophanes' Clouds

by Daphne O'Regan

Overview

This is an intelligent and unusually thought-provoking reading of Aristophanes' Clouds. O'Regan focuses on logos, or the power of argument, and its effects, and on the self-awareness of the second Clouds as a comedy of logos directed toward an audience made resistant by devotion to the body. Within and without the play, logos meets defeat when confronted with human nature and desire. The argument conveys much insight into fifth-century thought and the play's workings, the more so because it balances rhetoric with comedy, and reminds the reader that this is a comic logos—explored in the comic mode, and connected with the intentions and vicissitudes of the first and second Clouds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195070170
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/22/1992
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.38(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.88(d)
Lexile:	1570L (what's this?)

Editorial Reviews

"[A] provocative new reading of Aristophanes' Clouds....O'Regan has studied Clouds very carefully, and future scholars will be indebted to her for many details of observation and analysis....Her treatment of the two Logoi is well-balanced and funny, perhaps the best I have seen."—American Journal of Philology

"Both illuminating and useful. Anyone who works on comedy or teaches the Clouds will welcome this thoughtful treatment of such an important and complicated comedy."—Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"This reading of the play is intelligent, perceptive, and very detailed, and should be consulted by everyone with an interest in Old Comedy."—Greece & Rome

"Perceptive....[An] intelligent study."—New England Classical Newsletter & Journal

From the Publisher