Characteristics and structure of comedy

self explanatory material about Characteristics and structure of comedy. it contains definition of comedy and history and its basis sections into which it is divided. Old comedy , middle comedy. new comedy.

1. Characteristics and structure of Greek comedy Fareeha Shoukat BS English 2017-21

2. What is comedy ?   a drama of light and amusing character and typically with a happy ending (Merriam-Webster-dictionary) Comedy is a literary  genre  and a type of dramatic work that is amusing and satirical in its  tone , mostly having a cheerful ending. The  motif  of this dramatic work is triumph over unpleasant circumstance by creating comic effects, resulting in a happy  . https://literarydevices.net/comedy/

3. Ancient  Greek comedy  was a popular and influential form of  theatre  performed across ancient  Greece  from the 6th century BCE. Comedy is divided into three periods Old comedy( archaia ) Susarion - the earliest Athenian comic poet, Aristophanes-11 survivaling plays Middle comedy( mese ) "later than Aristophanes and his contemporaries, but earlier than  Menander “. New comedy ( nea ) Menander wrote 108 comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times.Georgos , Dyskolos

4. The Lenaea Festival In ancient Athens, there were annual competitions not only in tragedy but also in comedy at the City Dionysia , starting in 486 B.C. The Lenaea festival started having comedy competitions in 440. There were normally 5 comedies that competed, but during the Peloponnesian War, the number was reduced to 3. Unlike the writers of tragedy who put on a series of 4 plays, the writers of comedy produced one comedy apiece

5. Function of Comedy humor and induce laughter. I t also portrays social institutions and persons as corrupt, and ridicules them through satirizing, parodying, and poking fun at their vices. Origin of comedy Athens-Dionysus(god of wine, ritual madness, theatre, fertility, god of vegetation) In Roman he is known as Bacchus also as Liber. The  word comedy  seems to be connected by  derivation  with the Greek verb  meaning  “to revel,” and  comedy  arose out of the revels associated with the rites of Dionysus. E arly source of comedy is the poems of Archilochus (7th century BCE) and Hipponax (6th century BCE) which contain crude and explicit sexual humour . A third origin, and cited as such by  Aristotle , lies in the phallic songs which were sung during Dionysiac festivals.   

6. When tragedy and comedy came to light, poets were drawn by their natural bent towards one or the other. Some became writers of comedies instead of lampoons, the others produced tragedies instead of epics; the reason being that the former is in each case a higher kind of art and has greater value . Aristotle- poetics C . A. Trypanis   wrote that comedy is the last of the great species of poetry Greece gave to the world. S pecial effects that can be achieved when comedy lifts its voice in pseudo tragic rant and when tragedy adopts the prosaic but affecting language of comedy.  Horace I nsight into  Greek  society in general and provide details on the workings of  Greek government , political institutions, legal systems, religious practices, education, and  warfare  in the  Hellenic world .  Uniquely, the plays also reveal to us something of the identity of the audience and show just what tickled the Greeks' sense of humour . Finally, Greek comedy and its immediate predecessor  Greek tragedy would together form the foundation upon which all modern theatre is based.

7. Conti… P lays include outspoken political criticism and comment on literary and philosophical topics . [On modern poets] Small fry, I assure you, insignificant squeakers and twitterers , like a lot of swallows. A disgrace to their art. If ever they are granted a chorus, what does their offering at the shrine of Tragedy amount to? One cock of the hind leg and they’ve pissed themselves dry. You never hear of them again. (159, Act One, Scene One,  The Frogs  by Aristophanes) we have eleven complete plays from him. T here were two other layers to his plays. The first was pure and simple humor, focused on scatological and sexual jokes . The other layer was personal and political. The few plays we have are filled with attacks on political and intellectual people from his time; he did caricatures of  Socrates ,  Cleon , and  Euripides P lays include  The Clouds  (423  BC ), a satire on the misuse of philosophical argument directed chiefly against Socrates, and  The Frogs  (405  BC ), a satire on Greek drama directed chiefly against Euripides ..

8. Conti…   Peloponnesian Wars  that were going on when he wrote . Middle Comedy  -  Menander . The style is considered a transition between the traditional and new comedy, but you can think of Middle Comedy as a simpler form of Old Comedy. The chorus -used less and less . The playwrights of the New Comedy genre built on the legacy from their predecessors, but adapted it to the portrayal of everyday life , rather than of public affairs. The satirical and farcical element which featured so strongly in Aristophanes' comedies was increasingly abandoned. They wear masks, their dancing is expressive, as conveyed by the hands, arms and body.

9. There are five types of comedy in literature: Romantic Comedy Romantic comedy involves a  theme  of love leading to a happy conclusion . Comedy of Humors Ben Johnson is the first dramatist who conceived and popularized this dramatic genre during the late sixteenth century. The term humor derives from the Latin word  Humor , which means “liquid.” It comes from a theory that the human body has four liquids, or humors, which include phelgm , blood, yellow bile, and black bile. Comedy of Manners This form of dramatic genre deals with intrigues and relations of ladies and gentlemen living in a sophisticated society Sentimental Comedy Sentimental  drama  contains both comedy and sentimental tragedy. Tragicomedy This dramatic genre contains both tragic and comedic elements

10. Structure

11. Structure Aristophanic comedies have a more elaborate structure than the typical tragedy. A typical structure for Aristophanes' Old Comedy would be prologue,  parados , agon , parabasis , episodes, and Exodus, with a chorus of 24. Actors wore masks and had padding front and back. Costumes might include giant phalluses. He used equipment like the  mechane  or crane and the  ekkyklema  or platform. He made up long, complicated, compound words where appropriate, like cloudcuckooland .

12. Prologue : A monologue or dialogue. Parode (Entrance Ode) Agôn (Contest): Two speakers debate the issue Parabasis (coming forward): Ode Epirrhema (Afterword) Antode (Answering Ode) Antepirrhema (Answering Afterword) Episode Exode (Exit Song )

13. Conclusion Aristotle describes the genre of comedy and especially how it differs from tragedy. Among other distinctions, Aristotle says comedy represents men as worse than they are in real life, whereas tragedy shows them better. Tragedy uses real people, whereas comedy uses stereotypes. Aristotle says the plot for comedy came originally from Sicily . Old Comedy had been performed for 60 years prior to Aristophanes. In his time, as his work shows, Old Comedy was changing.

14. References https://literarydevices.net/comedy/ https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ancient_Greek_comedy https:// www.britannica.com/art/comedy https:// www.britannica.com/art/Old-Comedy http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aristot.+Poet.+ 1449a&redirect=true https://web.eecs.utk.edu/~ bmaclenn/Classes/US210/Greek-play.html#comedy https://www.thoughtco.com/parode-ancient-greek-tragedy-comedy-111952#:~:text=Stasimon%20(Stationary%20Song)%3A%20A,chorus%20after%20the%20last%20episode .