Roman Laughter: The Comedy Of Plautus
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Very good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Yellowed
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the heart of Roman theatrical tradition stands a playwright whose raucous, boundary-breaking comedies have entertained audiences for over two millennia — and Erich Segal's Roman Laughter: The Comedy of Plautus presents the most incisive scholarly examination of this ancient master's genius. This landmark work chronicles the dramatic world of Titus Maccius Plautus, arguing that his comedies — filled with scheming slaves, bumbling fathers, and lovesick young men — represent far more than mere entertainment; they constitute a calculated, carnivalesque inversion of Roman social order. Segal details how Plautus weaponised laughter as a form of temporary liberation, allowing Roman audiences to vicariously transgress the rigid hierarchies that governed their daily lives. Now in its expanded Second Edition, this work stands as an essential text in classical studies and the history of Western comedy, illustrating the profound influence Plautus exerted on Renaissance dramatists from Shakespeare to Molière. Segal's prose is both rigorously academic and infectiously enthusiastic, bringing the dusty scrolls of antiquity to vivid, breathing life. With penetrating analysis and wit worthy of its subject, Roman Laughter leaves the reader wondering: if the Romans laughed at the same things we do, how different from us were they, really?
Author: Erich Segal
Format: Paperback
Published: 1987, Oxford University Press
Genre: Plays
Condition remarks:
Book: Very good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Yellowed
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the heart of Roman theatrical tradition stands a playwright whose raucous, boundary-breaking comedies have entertained audiences for over two millennia — and Erich Segal's Roman Laughter: The Comedy of Plautus presents the most incisive scholarly examination of this ancient master's genius. This landmark work chronicles the dramatic world of Titus Maccius Plautus, arguing that his comedies — filled with scheming slaves, bumbling fathers, and lovesick young men — represent far more than mere entertainment; they constitute a calculated, carnivalesque inversion of Roman social order. Segal details how Plautus weaponised laughter as a form of temporary liberation, allowing Roman audiences to vicariously transgress the rigid hierarchies that governed their daily lives. Now in its expanded Second Edition, this work stands as an essential text in classical studies and the history of Western comedy, illustrating the profound influence Plautus exerted on Renaissance dramatists from Shakespeare to Molière. Segal's prose is both rigorously academic and infectiously enthusiastic, bringing the dusty scrolls of antiquity to vivid, breathing life. With penetrating analysis and wit worthy of its subject, Roman Laughter leaves the reader wondering: if the Romans laughed at the same things we do, how different from us were they, really?