No Laughing Matter Studies in Athenian Comedy

No Laughing Matter is a wide-ranging collection of focused scholarship targeted at academics and graduate students, but also accessible to senior undergraduates. It presents a diversity of views and methodologies, making it a good tool for university courses in Old Comedy. The inclusion of discussions of fragmentary authors alongside Aristophanes aims at giving a broad understanding of the genre of comedy. The book showcases the best of new scholarship on Old and Middle Comedy, using the most up-to-date texts and tools.

C.W. Marshall is Associate Professor of Greek and Roman Theatre at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and author of The Stagecraft and Performance of Roman Comedy (2006).

George Kovacs is Assistant Professor of Ancient History and Classics at Trent University, Canada. He and C.W. Marshall co-edited the volume Classics and Comics (2011).

Introduction - George Kovacs and C.W. Marshall
Part I: Comedy and Athens
'From the Wagons', 'Parade Abuse' and the Ritual Context of Old Comic Invective - Eric Csapo (University of Sydney)
Was Crates Criticizing Philosophy? The Case of the Thêria - David Konstan (Brown University)
Will the Real Socrates Please Stand Up? - Hallie Rebecca Marshall (University of British Columbia)
From Paracomedy to Metacomedy: Storey versus Sidwell on the Interaction between Aristophanes and Eupolis - - Keith Sidwell (University College, Cork/University of Calgary)
Father-beaters and Avian Justice in Aristophanes' Birds - Judith Fletcher (Wilfred Laurier University)
Politics and the City in Aristophanes' Lysistrata - S. Douglas Olson (University of Minnesota)
Playing on Remorse: Arginousai, Theramenes and Aristophanes' Frogs - Arlene Allan (University of Otago)
Part II: Comedy and Tragedy
Pursuing Nemesis: Cratinus and Mythological Comedy - Jeff Henderson (Boston University)
The Paratragic Muse: Aristophanes and Genre - Greg Dobrov (Loyola University of Chicago)
The Eleusinian Mysteries and the Public Status of Comedy in Aristophanes' Frogs - Donald Sells (University of Toronto)
Notes on Aristophanes' Frogs - Alan Sommerstein (University of Nottingham)
The Slave's Tale: Cario's Narrative in Aristophanes' Wealth - Robert Tordoff (York University)
Axionicus, The Euripides Fan - Elizabeth Scharffenberger (Columbia University)
Timocles fr. 6 and the Consolations of Tragedy - Ralph M. Rosen (University of Pennsylvania)
Index