Women and the Comic Plot in Menander

Abstract

Taking a fresh look at mistaken identity in the work of an author who helped to introduce the device to comedy, Professor Traill shows how the outrageous mistakes many male characters in Menander make about women are grounded in their own emotional needs. The core of the argument derives from analysis of speeches by or about women, with particular attention to the language used to articulate problems of knowledge and perception, responsibility and judgment. Not only does Menander freely borrow language, situations, and themes from tragedy, but he also engages with some of tragedy's epistemological questions, particularly the question of how people interpret what they see and hear. Menander was instrumental in turning the tragic theme of human ignorance into a comic device and inventing a plot type with enormous impact on the western tradition. This book provides new insights into his achievements within their historical and intellectual context.

Las virtudes del derecho inexacto: la imprecisión jurídica como estrategia literaria en Menandro (Samia 570-588 y Héroe 18-40)

“…42. "In Plangon, Daos sees a woman who embodies the qualities of free birth but -conveniently-occupies the position of a slave" (Traill, 2008, p. 50). 43.…”

Γameσσetai/γe Maσσetai: HomerIliad9.394 and the Constitutive Role of Irregularity

“…As I shall argue, this doubling of sanctioned irregularity reflects the position of Achilles within the Iliad; he is disruptive, unique 28 The generic conventions and civic ideologies of gender at work in New Comedy, and in Menander in particular, support this interpretation; at no point in our extant comedies does a (future) wife marry or have sex with someone who is not her (future) husband. Despite gestures towards the contravention of the generic, political and ideological constraints of normative heterosexual relations between citizens in New Comedy, the hegemonic 'reproductive' sexual politics of the city are always ultimately confirmed; see, for example, Omitowoju (2002) 204-29;Lape (2004) especially 1-109; Traill (2008) 246-51. It is unlikely, then, that this fragment deals with sexual rivalry between (for instance) a father and son.…”

Reinvention in Terence’s Eunuchus

“…56 The question should not be only whether Thais is a bona or mala meretrix (see, e.g., Gilula 1980, Anderson 1984, Traill 2008, but how Terence manipulates our view of her character throughout the play. Christenson 2013: 275 suggests that Thais is different from other prostitutes in her "inability to seize control of the play in the manner of a clever slave."…”