Departmental Papers (Classical Studies)
Document Type
Review
Date of this Version
March 1992
Abstract
Few formal elements of Old Comedy have troubled scholars as much as the parabasis. In its typical form, this choral "digression" appears to interrupt the dramatic fiction of the play with commentary on contemporary social or political issues and often brazen trumpeting of the poet's virtues. Its apparent discontinuity with the rest of the play encouraged scholars of an earlier age to consider it the original kernel of Comedy onto which dramatic episodes were eventually grafted.
Recommended Citation
Rosen, R. M. (1992). Review of Thomas K. Hubbard, The Mask of Comedy. Aristophanes and the Intertextual Parabasis. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/classics_papers/22
Date Posted: 27 September 2006
This document has been peer reviewed.
Comments
Reprinted from Bryn Mawr Classical Review, March 1, 1991. Publisher URL: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1992/03.02.13.html