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Aristophanes’ Old and New Comedy. Volume I: Six Essays in Perspective by Kenneth J. Reckford (review)
- Echos du monde classique: Classical news and views
- University of Toronto Press
- Volume XXXIII, n.s. 8, Number 3, 1989
- pp. 395-398
- Review
- Additional Information
BOOK REVI EWS/COMPTES REND US 395 KENNETH J. RE CKFORD. Ari stophanes' Old and New Comedy. Volume I: Six Essays in Perspectiv e. Chapel Hill: Universi ty of North Carolina Press, 1987. Pp. xiv + 576. Hard cover, US $35, 0-8 078-1720- 1 (v.1). Thi s is the first of two books on Aristophancs: the seco nd (Clouds of Glory) will be devoted excl usively to Clouds, a comedy much beloved by Rcck ford. In thi s volume the author presents six studies revealing his overall view of Ari stophanic Comedy, and serv ing as pro legome na to the sing le study of Clouds. The themes of eac h essay arc presented in the order of the importance that Rock ford attaches to them: I, the rel igious festiva l/holiday bac kground (". .. at such a time, sac red laughter recreates the gods; . . . co medy draws on the deepest sources of joy and hope and mea ning ", 52); II, the psychological , relying very heavil y on the Aristotelian co ncep t of catha rsis, a term which recur s again and again in the discussion ("a larger com ic explosion, a furth er cathars is, ar ising from nothin g less than the total comedy", 69); Ill , the theatri cal , conce rned with Rcckford 's distin ction of "the text" from "the eve nt"; IV, the poeti c fanta sy in which the dream-like natur e of Old Comedy is explored (his jumping-off point is the dream s of the slaves in the ope ning sce ne of Wa sp s ); V, poli tics in Ari stophanes; VI, the position of Aristoph anes in the literary history of dram a, hence his title "Old-a nd-New" ("triump h of old farce and new ideas workin g in concer t", 397). Writing very much in the tradi tion of Whitma n and Seg al, Reckford owes much also to Freud and Frye (comedy as the "myth of spring") . He bases his analysis on certain fundame ntal points. One is a heavy dose of catharsis which he defin es originally as "purga tion" (56) but adds the ove rtone of "purification". ' Th ere is also the emphas is on the ca rniva l-like experie nce and the power of Dion ysos and his festivals; Rcckford does well to point this out , but at times lose s sight of the ord er, struc ture, and intell ectu al discipline whi ch an Ari stophanic comedy must have requir ed . Rath er too much stress is put on wildness and unreason. He rejects the olde r approac h to Ari sto phanes as histori cal-satire; the co median is serious, but not about what we ca ll "politics" . His co medy is a synthes is of the thesis of Old Comic form and the antithesis of the Cultural Change (ix). Here he follows the lead of Gomme who laid grea t stress on the co me dian's own clai ms to have created a supe rior and mo re sophisticated form of comedy . Reckford argues also that Old Comedy "conveys much of the wisdom and healin g that fairy tales [provide]", and to this end recreates Peace in the form of a fair y tale (ch. 10). Abov e all, he regard s Ari stophancs as essentially an optimis tic and pro gressi ve humanist whose 1 On thi s co nce pt, see H. House, Aris totle's Poeti cs (London 1956); D.W. Lucas, Aristotle's Poetics (Oxfo rd 1968) 273 -290 . 396 BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS comedy was to entertain and thus to heal; sec his discussion in the important ch. 26 on loyalty to comic truth and human nature. Emphasis is placed upon the earnestness of Aristophanes (that he might be trivial is not on). But need there always be method in the comic madness? One gets the feeling that Reckford's Aristophanes is a '60s liberal before his time, trying through his comedy to create a New Society. Yet it is possible to be an intellectual and creative artist and yet be regressive. I am reminded of C.S...