Menander goes to school: comic characters in the declamations of Libanius and Choricius

• Grant number: 15/23498-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2016
• End date: January 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Classical Languages
• Principal Investigator: José Marcos Mariani de Macedo
• Grantee: Bárbara da Costa e Silva
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims at an analytic study of the reception of comic characters in rhetorical exercises, more widely known as declamation. The characters chosen were the miser old men, the misanthropos, the parasite, the hetaira and the young lover and the declamations chosen were Libanius' and Choricius', who were both teachers of rhetoric. I intend to show that the adaptation of comic topoi of characterization is deliberate: there is enough evidence to prove that Menander was an author widely known and read in the schools of the Late Empire, as it is possible to notice in Quintilian, Syrianus and Dio. Therefore I will investigate the reasons that motivated the deliberate adaptation of Menander in schools exercises taking into consideration the contexts of performance and the origins of declamation.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

SILVA, Bárbara da Costa e. Sophistopolis, the Declaimer and Athenian Comedy: comic character-types in imperial school exercises. 2020. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.