The attenuation of the pater familias' power through the female characters in the theatre of Plautus

• Grant number: 25/07733-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: August 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Margarida Maria de Carvalho
• Grantee: Lais Felippe Lucon
• Supervisor: Erica Bexley
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Durham University (DU), England
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/17770-5 - The attenuation of the pater familias power through the female characters in Plautus' theater, BP.MS

Abstract

Surrounded by the historical context as of the III and II BCE, Plautus' theater emerged in a scene of a broad cultural amalgam - a result of Rome's frequent expansions. Plautus' temporal arc, situated on the period commonly referred to as Midle Republic, was marked by significant changes in the apparatus that composed and administered the republican system. Notably, the Punic Wars fought against Carthage established Roman projection in the Mediterranean, as well as a increased contact with Greek culture. As an echo of its time, plautine corpus highlighted plural representations of the feminine and the masculine seen in that society, specially within the household. While dedicating ourselves to the reading of Asinaria (The Comedy of Asses), Casina (Casina), Menaechmi (The Two Menaechmuses) and Mercator (The Merchant), we perceived a construction that contests the pater familias' figure - demonstrated by behaviours shown towards female characters. Therefore, we suggest, as a hypothesis, that Plautus' comedy, using the feminine as a manner that stimulate - and perform - critic discourse, presents sings of a decline in the power of the most prominent component in the household: the pater familias. Furthermore, by understading the Roman family as a social organization with strong political features, we argue that plautine critique reflects in the political atmosphere of Rome.