Politics vs. Poetics

Aristophanes: Acharnians

In this course, Dr Rosie Wyles (University of Kent) provides a close reading and analysis of Aristophanes' Acharnians, focusing in particular on the prescribed material for the OCR A-Level in Classical Greek. All passages are presented in the original Greek with a facing English translation, while commentary includes discussion of the juxtaposition of politics and poetics in the play, reality and comedy, the combination of visual and verbal humour, the limits (if any!) of Aristophanic comedy, and the importance of metatheatre in the play.

Politics vs. Poetics

In this module, we focus on the opening speech of the play, thinking in particular about how Dicaeopolis blends the political and theatrical when talking about his recent experiences of pleasure and pain.