Religious Ritual and Family Dynamics in Terence (original) (raw)

The Cultural Poetics of Terence's Literary Comedy

2013

T present paper discusses the cultural and literary forces behind the accusations of plagiarism and inappropriate composition hurled against the comic playwright Terence by his anonymous accuser(s). The only source for these accusations is Terence’s own work, specifically the prologues set at the opening of each of his six plays — as a matter of fact, the accusations are said to have been the raison d’être for the six prologues. The exact nature of these charges has never ceased to be a debated issue on account of the absence of explicit additional information. This absence is probably deliberate: the main objective of the Terentian prologues is the communication of the idea that Terence is the victim of literary polemic, not unlike Callimachus and the alexandrian poets following on his footsteps and against the homeric tradition. The main objective of the present paper however is not the inventive Terentian poetics per se, the Callimachean terminology that abounds in his prologues,...

Terence and the speculum vitae: ‘realism’ and (Roman) comedy

Harvard Studies Classical Philology, 2022

What is "realism"? A mirror-like reflection of the mere appearances of reality? Or a representation of some sort of deep "meanings," "truths," or "essences" underpinning that reality? Or a combination of both, or something in-between? Does "realism" aim at, or result in, deception, entertainment, and/or instruction? How are these issues addressed by ancient theorists, especially in relation to the "realistic" genre par excellence: comedy? In particular, how is "realism" understood by critics of (Roman) comedy, from comic dramatists such as Terence himself, to commentators such as Donatus, to modern scholars? These are some of the questions this article addresses. My primary aims are: (1) to reexamine the key concept of "realism" in ancient literary theory, using the reception of (Roman) comedy as a case-study; (2) to demonstrate that "realism" is a highly elusive concept in (ancient) scholarship, which evokes different kinds of relationships between comedy and reality, and which can be manipulated by and underpin different theoretical frameworks; (3) to reveal how Terence's own views on "realism" appear to be dissimilar from, or at least more nuanced than, that of most scholarship on Terentian comedy.