Power Couple: Attic Comedy and Historiography
Organizer Refereed Panel for the SCS Meeting of January 2018, in Boston, MA.
Attic Comedy and Historiography thematize the question of power in all its forms: both genres analyze rhetorical power, imperial power, mythical and divine power, the power (or powerlessness) of the law, the power of the reputation or charisma of politicians, leaders, generals, or kings, and diverse other themes of this kind. Thoroughgoing connections may also be observed between comic and historiographic ways of approaching power, as each genre stakes out a variety of positions on the continuously roiling competition for power that was necessarily a main concern of their shared audience(s). Both genres play, for example, on their audience’s love of empire, vulnerability to demagogues, or disapproval of female authority.
We welcome papers that explore more fully the relation between the treatments of power found in Attic comedy and historiography. For instance, we encourage papers that address the relationships between how the two genres treat the following themes:
- the power of language: for example, the power of insult and abuse, of stereotypes, of deception, of refusing to communicate, of messengers
- the power of demagoguery and/or of personality
- the power of the past and/or of memory
- the power of sudden changes, reversals, of new ideas, of criticism
- the power of myth, of the divine, of oracles, or of divine law
- the power of physical violence; soft and hard power
- the power of legitimate and illegitimate use of legal procedures and trials
- the power of material objects, of symbolic objects, of visualization of objects
- the power of money, or of the desire for money
- the power of cities or empires; of particular wars or war in general
We are seeking papers that go beyond comparative examination of how the two genres treat power to investigate the relations between comedic and historiographic treatments of power in fifth- and fourth- century Athens. Papers should also show awareness of the events, experiences, social factors, and attitudes that allowed comedy and historiography to offer related presentations of power to their ancient Athenian audiences.
Freedom of speech is under increasing attack worldwide. Analysis of how comedy and historiography interacted to examine and respond to political, social, and military power in a democratic setting is therefore very timely. Abstracts should explain the main arguments of a paper that will last no more than 20 minutes. They will be refereed by the organizers and two anonymous readers. Anonymous initial abstracts of 300 words or less should be submitted as email attachments to info@classicalstudies.org. The subject line of the email should be the title of the panel.
For questions about the panel please contact the organizers: Edith Foster (edithmfoster@gmail.com) and Emily Baragwanath (ebaragwanath@unc.edu)
The deadline for submission is February 24, 2017.