Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


osu1211552932.pdf (2 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Playing with Your Role in Plautine Theater

Bungard, Christopher William
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1211552932

Abstract Details

2008, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Greek and Latin.
This dissertation seeks to open a discussion about the comedies of Titus Maccius Plautus. It focuses on plays that explore how characters' attachments to particular roles affect the ways that they are able to interact with their world. Recent scholarship has focused on Plautus' use of metatheater for scripting his plots. This view often sees Plautus using the stock roles of New Comedy as building blocks for his plays. Instead of being descriptive, the roles of the angry old man, the pathetic young lover, and the tricky slave have set limits to our expectations. The old man will oppose the young lover. The clever slave will masterfully beguile all. I argue that Plautus does not privilege the role, but the character's relationship to that role. For Plautus, there is nothing essential in the role. The clever slave succeeds because of an attitude not because of his role. Provided that he does believe he is essentially his role, a free character can enjoy the same sort of comic freedom as the shape-shifting clever slave, who often plays any role he might like. In order to examine this topic, I have focused on four plays of Plautus in particular, Pseudolus, Menaechmi, Mercator, and Captivi. By carefully examining the interactions of characters and characters' own reflections on their situations, I have teased out a different way of approaching Plautine comedy. Plautus is not interested in the role society gives us to play, but what we do when given the chance to play that role. In taking this approach, I am interested in what Plautine theater has to say to Roman and modern audiences about our experiences off the stage, reminding us that any one given role is never sufficient for our daily interactions. We are always more than the roles we temporarily adopt, and thus, always a work in progress.
William Batstone, PhD (Advisor)
Bruce Heiden, PhD (Committee Member)
Jon Erickson, PhD (Committee Member)
Paul Iversen, PhD (Committee Member)
242 p.
Classical Studies
Plautus; Roman comedy; ancient comedy; ancient theater; character; role

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Bungard, C. W. (2008). Playing with Your Role in Plautine Theater [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1211552932

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Bungard, Christopher. Playing with Your Role in Plautine Theater. 2008. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1211552932.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Bungard, Christopher. "Playing with Your Role in Plautine Theater." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1211552932

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1211552932
7,845
© 2008, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.