Overview

Paracomedy: Appropriations of Comedy in Greek Drama is the first book that examines how ancient Greek tragedy engages with the genre of comedy. While scholars frequently study paratragedy (how Greek comedians satirize tragedy), this book investigates the previously overlooked practice of paracomedy: how Greek tragedians regularly appropriate elements from comedy such as costumes, scenes, language, characters, or plots. Drawing upon a wide variety of complete and fragmentary tragedies and comedies (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Rhinthon), this monograph demonstrates that paracomedy was a prominent feature of Greek tragedy. Blending a variety of interdisciplinary approaches including traditional philology, literary criticism, genre theory, and performance studies, this book offers innovative close readings and incisive interpretations of individual plays. Jendza presents paracomedy as a multivalent authorial strategy: some instances impart a sense of ugliness or discomfort; others provide a sense of light-heartedness or humor. While this work traces the development of paracomedy over several hundred years, it focuses on a handful of Euripidean tragedies at the end of the fifth century BCE. Jendza argues that Euripides was participating in a rivalry with the comedian Aristophanes and often used paracomedy to demonstrate the poetic supremacy of tragedy; indeed, some of Euripides' most complex uses of paracomedy attempt to re-appropriate Aristophanes' mockery of his theatrical techniques. Paracomedy: Appropriations of Comedy in Greek Tragedy theorizes a new, ground-breaking relationship between Greek tragedy and comedy that not only redefines our understanding of the genre of tragedy, but also reveals a dynamic theatrical world filled with mutual cross-generic influence.

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9780190090937

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The strengths of Paracomedy lie in Jendza's clear and logical argumentation, the sheer mass of examples he musters of different forms of tragic appropriation of comedy, both intertextual and intertheatrical, and his close readings of Euripides' metapoetic relationship with Aristophanes. It is hard to overstate the importance of Paracomedy for the study of Greek drama and especially its intergeneric relationships. Jendza has provided the field with a well-argued and intelligent re-assessment of tragic possibilities, which has filled a gaping hole in contemporary scholarship and which will no doubt inspire further studies of tragedy's engagement with comedy and satyr play. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

The strengths of Paracomedy lie in Jendza's clear and logical argumentation, the sheer mass of examples he musters of different forms of tragic appropriation of comedy, both intertextual and intertheatrical, and his close readings of Euripides' metapoetic relationship with Aristophanes. It is hard to overstate the importance of Paracomedy for the study of Greek drama and especially its intergeneric relationships. Jendza has provided the field with a well-argued and intelligent re-assessment of tragic possibilities, which has filled a gaping hole in contemporary scholarship and which will no doubt inspire further studies of tragedy's engagement with comedy and satyr play. -- Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"""The strengths of Paracomedy lie in Jendza's clear and logical argumentation, the sheer mass of examples he musters of different forms of tragic appropriation of comedy, both intertextual and intertheatrical, and his close readings of Euripides' metapoetic relationship with Aristophanes. It is hard to overstate the importance of Paracomedy for the study of Greek drama and especially its intergeneric relationships. Jendza has provided the field with a well-argued and intelligent re-assessment of tragic possibilities, which has filled a gaping hole in contemporary scholarship and which will no doubt inspire further studies of tragedy's engagement with comedy and satyr play."" -- Bryn Mawr Classical Review"

Author Information

Craig Jendza is an Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Kansas. His research and teaching cover a wide variety of topics, including Greek drama, mythology, magic, linguistics, humor and horror.

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