Plautus' Mercator and the critic to the socio-political roman base through the female characters (centuries III-II B.C.)

• Grant number: 22/00458-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): April 01, 2022
• Effective date (End): December 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Margarida Maria de Carvalho
• Grantee: Lais Felippe Lucon
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research is inserted in the historical context of the centuries III and II B.C., in the chronological period usual named as Middle Republic. Our study object is the theatrical play The Merchant written by Plautus (255/250 - 184 B.C.), a roman republic comedian. Through the play, and using the Gender studies exposed in the Materials and Methods item, we intend to observe the acting of the female characters and the acting and reacting of the male characters towards them. After we dedicate ourselves to the reading of all Plautus plays that reached our days, we present our hypothesis: Plautus construct the women from his plays as a way to elaborate critics to the power relations that existed inside the familiar groups from the Middle Republic. We acknowledge that the roman family as a social institution was prominent and acted as a strong source of political function. Thereby, we understand that the critics made by the comediographer are located in the social-political sphere. The chosen play shows, in an initial moment of research, a marked critical note. Therefore, we seek to understand how the female acting, in The Merchant play, acts as a way of transforming the subservience of roman women and how the actions of this characters behave as a way of questioning the social-political ambience from Plautus' time. Hence, we'll use the bilingual edition from Loeb Classical Library written by Paul Nixon (Latin/English) and Damares Barbosa Correia's dissertation (2007), named O Mercador de Plauto: Estudo e Tradução, that consists in a translation of the play to Portuguese. (AU)