Venom in Verse (review)

Gonda Van Steen, Venom in Verse: Aristophanes in Modern Greece. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2000. Pp.305. $39.00 cloth.

Venom in Verse is a delightful and instructive book. Focusing on the recent history of Aristophanic reception in Greece, Gonda Van Steen shows that such reception illuminates, in important ways, the study of modern Greek culture. Over the past century Greeks have had an ardent interest, unique in Europe, in staging, viewing, and writing about Aristophanic production, an interest that extends beyond theater into politics. The author detects and explores a strong connection between Aristophanic revival and the search for identity in the

context of the modern Greek nation. She notes that the reception of Attic comedy is ideologically heavily laden, since it mirrors the tension between the official, Hellenic conception of nationhood, associated with Western models and katharévousa, and the Romeic, linked to the native oral tradition and to demoticism. Van Steen shows that Attic comedy has been appropriated by the Romeic, popular tradition and has generally been interpreted as transgressive of official ideology.

The author effectively contextualizes her treatment of Aristophanic revival, supplying useful background on broader sociopolitical and theatrical developments. Her discussion of contemporary performance enables the reader to identify old and new trends in Aristophanic interpretation in modern Greek culture. However, the synchronic nature of the material makes it more difficult for Van Steen to have the clarity of vision she exhibits in discussing more historically removed material. Besides its relevance to modern Greek culture, Venom in Verse also has interesting implications for the study of classics, as it adopts an unconventional perspective, focusing not on the classical heritage but on modern interpretations. Van Steen's study of the culture surrounding Aristophanic revival in modern Greece amply exemplifies the belief that meanings are assigned by readers and conditioned by historical context. A particularly interesting feature of Aristophanic reception in Greece has been the existence of strong theatrical traditions that have established discourses focused on performance, rather than on the original texts. Thus, Karolos Koun's 1959 landmark production of The Birds acquired primacy over the Aristophanic text in validating and influencing later interpretations.

Venom in Verse is also noteworthy for its adoption of creative methodology. Van Steen correctly assesses the free-spirited interpretations she discusses as revelatory of modern Greece rather than antiquity. Her emphasis on the modern context allows her to be broadly inclusive in her selection of material. Besides mainstream interpretations, she places a novel emphasis on alternative, counter-cultural Aristophanic revivals that effectively support her Romeic view of Aristophanes as a transgressor. Her consideration of non-theatrical material, including cartoons based on the comedies, and Fascist texts attempting to appropriate Aristophanic material, highlight Aristophanes' impact on Greek culture at large. Another important virtue of the book is that Van Steen approaches the material from a gender-sensitive perspective. Thus, the author aptly characterizes the Romeic revival tradition of Aristophanes as male-oriented. Particularly interesting is her discussion of the dynamics of misogyny in early-twentieth-century interpretations of the female comedies.

Venom in Verse, as its title indicates, tends to be focused on the texts of Aristophanes's comedies. Moreover, consideration of sociopolitical questions frequently leaves little or no room for the author to explore questions of aesthetics. Van Steen's discussion of Karolos Koun's work on Aristophanes, in Chapter 4, illustrates the importance of paying more attention to performance issues. A dominant figure of twentieth-century Greek theater, Koun directed several of the extant Attic comedies. His work is seminally significant to Aristophanic production not only in Greece but also internationally. Van Steen focuses particularly on the engaging reception of Koun's landmark production of The Birds (1959). In presenting the director's approach to Aristophanes, Van Steen attaches extreme importance to his "manifesto of Greek Folk Expressionism." She uses the manifesto to confirm her belief that the director's interpretation is firmly rooted in the Romeic conception of comic...