Este trabalho consiste no estudo introdutório e tradução da comédia O Díscolo, de Menandro, autor grego do século IV a.C. A primeira parte do estudo contempla a apresentação da comédia em seu contexto e sua estrutura dramática. A segunda parte é dedicada à análise das personagens - por ser uma comédia que privilegia os caracteres, julgo importante estender-me sobre eles. Essa seção divide-se em nove partes, cada uma dedicada a uma personagem, exceto no caso da primeira seção intitulada A Divindade, que apresenta uma análise sobre o deus Pã e as Ninfas; e a quinta seção, intitulada Personagens femininas, que traz a análise da menina, filha de Cnêmon, de Simica, e da mãe de Sóstrato. A tradução, segunda realizada no Brasil a primeira é de Mário da Gama Kury tem o objetivo de divulgar a obra do autor grego para o público brasileiro em geral. Com esse intuito, o texto foi vertido para o português em prosa, procurando-se manter o seu ritmo fluido e sua linguagem. Além disso, a linha do verso foi mantida para facilitar a consulta ao original grego. / This work consists in the introductory study and translation of the comedy Dyskolos, of Menander, Greek author of the fourth century BC. The first part of the study includes the presentation of comedy concerning its context and its dramatic structure. The second part is devoted to the analysis of the characters - as a comedy that emphasizes the characters, I consider it important. This section is divided into nine parts, each one devoted to one character, except for the first section entitled The Divine, which presents an analysis of the god Pan and the Nymphs, and the fifth section, entitled Female characters, which conveys the analysis of the girl, the daughter of Knemon of Simike, and of Sostratos mother. The translation, the second one developed in Brazil the first is by Mario da Gama Kury aims to disseminate the work of the Greek author to the Brazilian public. With this purpose, the text was converted to Portuguese on prose, trying to keep its rhythm and language. Besides that, the line of the verse was kept to make it easier the consultation with the original.

This thesis explores the politics of community in five Shakespearean comedies: The Comedy of Errors (1594), The Merchant of Venice (1596-8), Measure for Measure (1603-4), The Tempest (1611) and The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613). The idea of community addresses many issues usually thought to belong to 'high politics'. Thinking about this topic therefore enables us to articulate a notion of the political firmly grounded within the functioning of the commonwealth at a local level and as a state of interpersonal relations. This thesis has three key aims. Firstly, it argues that the plays highlight the responsibility of all community members, no matter their gender or status, in shaping and contributing to their political environment by displaying civic virtue, working to obtain justice and influencing their ruler's behaviour. By so doing, it focuses on the processes of civic engagement and the political implications of everyday life within a community which have often been neglected in readings of Shakespeare's work thus far. Secondly, this thesis illustrates the inseparability of ethics and politics. It demonstrates throughout that relationships between individuals within a community can have widereaching implications, whether that be in terms of the existence of trust between friends, family members or fellow citizens; the importance of consent existing between subjects and ruler; or the ability of fellow-feeling to confer a sense of agency upon subjects. Lastly, it contends that Shakespeare's assessment of the commonwealth in his comedies, with its emphasis on civic values and on the relationship between the community and the individual, remains attuned to Aristotelian and Ciceronian thought, in contrast to the Tacitean influences critics have detected in the darkness and scepticism of his tragedies and histories. Shakespeare's comedies therefore question the commonly accepted paradigm in early modern intellectual history that Tacitus' prominence increased greatly in the intellectual climate of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, while Aristotle's and Cicero's diminished. Moving away from the predominant focus on the tragedies and histories in analyses of Shakespeare's political thought, this thesis foregrounds the significance of citizenship, the household and friendship and reassesses the role of the comedies in Shakespeare's thinking about politics.

Paradoxal, le rire de l’horreur constitue cependant une donnée majeure de l’expérience théâtrale contemporaine. Il procède d’une mutation du comique qui en vient à exprimer la violence au lieu de l’édulcorer. Sur la scène anglaise d’après l’abolition de la censure (1968), le comique se fait miroir des angoisses de la société et l’horreur, mise en scène de façon de plus en plus naturaliste, fait rire le public tout en suscitant un profond malaise qui interroge la position du spectateur. Mais, dans un mouvement inverse et encore plus dérangeant parce qu’insidieux, l’humour se fait aussi vecteur d’effroi quand l’horreur est tue ou euphémisée, renvoyant alors au public une interrogation profondément éthique sur l’humanité de son rire. Ces mutations esthétiques s’insèrent dans une profonde déstabilisation de la nature même de la comédie et de son idéologie optimiste et humaniste : si certains sous-genres (la farce, la comedy of manners, la city comedy, la parodie) représentent volontiers des situations horribles, la comédie est structurellement défigurée quand elle incorpore une ontologie horrible, quand sa forme n’implique plus le progrès mais l’arbitraire et quand son dénouement se fait explicitement dissonant. L’horreur, défigurant de manière ludique la forme de la comédie, devient un principe poétique qui renouvelle le genre, et en particulier les archétypes comiques inoffensifs pour les rendre terribles. Car c’est à l’aune de la tragédie défaillante que se refonde la comédie et le rire s’y étouffe, lesté d’une conscience du tragique soulignée par la culpabilité inhérente à de nombreux éclats de rire, mais surtout par la dérision des valeurs tragiques et la relativisation de l’absolu dans l’humour. Dans ces conditions, le rire devient un moyen d’accéder à la puissance des émotions tragiques, et la catharsis se redéfinit, s’éloignant de la traditionnelle purification des passions pour devenir une réintensification de leur pouvoir humanisant. / Paradoxical as it may be, laughing at horror is a major feature of the contemporary theatrical experience. It emerges from a shift in the comic mode which now expresses violence instead of muffling it. In the aftermath of the abolition of censorship in the United Kingdom (1968), this comic mode has held a mirror up to society’s fears and horror has been staged in a more and more naturalistic way, so as to make the audience laugh while unsettling them, questioning the very position of the spectators. However, in a converse and even more disturbing way, humour has become a way to appal them, subduing horror instead of underlining it and thereby deeply questioning them on the humanity of laughter. Those aesthetic shifts take part in a general process of undermining comedy’s humanistic optimistic ideology; even though some subgenres (namely farce, city comedy, comedy of manners or parody) easily stage horrible scenes, comedy is structurally defaced when it includes an ontology of horror, when its shape does not express progress but arbitrariness and when its ending is explicitly unhappy. Playing on the structure of comedy to the point of defacing it, horror becomes a poetic principle that renews the genre and especially the comic archetypes, making them dreadful instead of harmless. It is indeed tragedy’s failure that becomes the measure of this renewal of comedy, as laughter gets stifled by the tragic consciousness that tinges many laughs with guilt, caused by the way tragic values are ridiculed and tragic absoluteness belittled by humour. In those conditions, laughing turns into a means for the spectator to surreptitiously feel the power of tragic emotions; the experience redefines catharsis, no longer a purification of emotions but a new way to reach their humanising power.

Scholarly research on comical popular theatre is rare in the Swedish context even though the genre has attracted large audiences throughout the 20th century. Nils Poppe is one of the greatest Swedish actors in the comical genre and he is famous for his playful acting style. With my Master’s dissertation I aim to shed some light on both the genre and this great actor. Another aim of this Master’s dissertation is to gain understanding of what causes the audience’s laughter experiencing Nils Poppe’s comical acting. To understand the audience response to the comical acting I need to study the communication between the actor and the beholders.   In doing this I use Bert O. States phenomenological approach, in which he divides the communication into three modes in which the beholder experiences the action. In each of these modes I then use complementary concepts and theories to analyze the audience’s laughter. My analysis starts with the Representational mode in which the focus is on the fiction of the play. Using semiotics, I discuss Poppe’s characters as a stock character related to the Commedia dell’arte character Harlequin and other clown characters, which are imbedded in the audience’s memory. With examples from a play I show why the audience laugh in different scenes.  In the next chapter, I analyze the Self-expressive mode in which the artist at stage is in focus. While experiencing the fiction of the play the audience simultaneously experiences the reality on stage. The actor is present and Poppe’s real face, body and voice is affecting the audience’s response. The final mode is the Collaborative mode in which the collaboration between the actor and beholder is analyzed. The direction of the play and how Poppe interacts with the audience is increasing the impression of presence among the audience. In his acting, Poppe breaks the theatrical conventions of the separation between fiction and reality, and in improvisations, he challenges both the audience and fellow actor’s notion of theatre. The result of the study implies that some laughter can’t be explained just by studying each of these modes separately. When the character leaves the fictional play and acts within the audience reality, or when the actor on stage is understood as part of the fiction an incongruity is created that tends to make the audience laugh.

Film är ett av de medier som påverkar vår identitetskonstruktion och vår uppfattning om normer och verkligheten. En av de mest populära filmgenrerna är komedifilm. Det är därför intressant att studera konstruktionen av karaktärer i komedifilm för att se vilka normer som är rådande idag. Studiens syfte är att ur ett socialkonstruktionistiskt perspektiv undersöka olika karaktärer i modern komedifilm för att ta reda på hur genus är konstruerat, vilken humoristisk funktion olika karaktärer tilldelas samt vilka eventuella skillnader det finns i komedifilm med i huvudsak manliga skådespelare respektive kvinnliga skådespelare. Resultaten av analysen visade att komedifilm med i huvudsak manliga skådespelare bekräftar traditionella könsnormer samt sociala normer medan en komedifilm med i huvudsak kvinnliga skådespelare visar nya tendenser gällande maskulina och feminina karaktärer. Maskulina egenskaper visades dock vara de mest eftersträvansvärda. Studien fann även att den humoristiska funktionen hos karaktärerna ligger i stereotypisering, överdrifter samt brott mot sociala normer. / Film is a medium that influences the construction of identities and the perception of norms and reality. One of the most popular movie genres is comedy. Therefore, it is of interest to study the construction of the film characters to see what standards are prevailing today. The study's aim is to - from a social constructionist perspective - examine different characters in a contemporary comedy film to research how gender is constructed, the humorous function different characters are assigned, and the differences between a comedy film with mainly male actors and a comedy film with mainly female actors. The results of the content analysis showed that a comedy film with mainly male actors confirms traditional gender norms and social norms as a comedy film with mainly female actors shows new trends regarding masculine and feminine characters. Masculine characteristics were shown, however, to be more desirable. The study also found that the humorous function of the characters lies in the breaking of social norms, stereotyping and exaggeration.

Texte remanié de : Thesis, Doctoral, Bonn Universität Göttingen, 2005. / Bibliogr. p. [327]-350. Index.

published_or_final_version / Literary Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Στόχος της μετά χείρας εργασίας είναι η παρουσίαση του Μίμου της Χαριτίου (εισαγωγή, κείμενο -κριτικό υπόμνημα, μετάφραση, ερμηνευτικό υπόμνημα) και η εστίαση στα προβλήματα που προκύπτουν από την αποσπασματική φύση του κειμένου (αναδιάρθρωση της πλοκής, χαρακτήρες που διαμορφώνουν την δράση, ειδικός σκηνικός apparatus, σκηνοθετική οργάνωση). Η κύρια εστίαση, ωστόσο, στρέφεται στις λογοτεχνικές αξιώσεις του εν λόγω Μίμου και στις αναλογίες που εμφανίζει με αισθητικά καταξιωμένα λογοτεχνικά είδη. / The aim of this essay is to present the Mime "Charition" (Introduction,text-apparatus criticus, translation, commentary) and focus on the problems that occupied the literary research and emerge through the fragmentary nature of the Mime, such as the reformation of the plot, the structure, the apparatus scaenicus.However, the dominant question is the literary claims of ''Charition'' along with references to its lingual merits, its closely related subjects and the analogies it bears with a wide range of literary texts.

Mon projet de thèse démontre le rôle essentiel que tient la mélancolie dans les comédies de Shakespeare. J’analyse sa présence au travers de multiples pièces, des farces initiales, en passant par les comédies romantiques, jusqu’aux tragicomédies qui ponctuent les dernières années de sa carrière. Je dénote ainsi sa métamorphose au sein du genre comique, passant d’une représentation individuelle se rapportant à la théorie des humeurs, à un spectre émotionnel se greffant aux structures théâtrales dans lesquelles il évolue. Je suggère que cette progression s’apparent au cycle de joie et de tristesse qui forme la façon par laquelle Shakespeare dépeint l’émotion sur scène. Ma thèse délaisse donc les théories sur la mélancolie se rapportant aux humeurs et à la psychanalyse, afin de repositionner celle-ci dans un créneau shakespearien, comique, et historique, où le mot « mélancolie » évoque maintes définitions sur un plan social, scientifique, et surtout théâtrale. Suite à un bref aperçu de sa prévalence en Angleterre durant la Renaissance lors de mon introduction, les chapitres suivants démontrent la surabondance de mélancolie dans les comédies de Shakespeare. A priori, j’explore les façons par lesquelles elle est développée au travers de La Comedie des Erreurs et Peines d’Amour Perdues. Les efforts infructueux des deux pièces à se débarrasser de leur mélancolie par l’entremise de couplage hétérosexuels indique le malaise que celle-ci transmet au style comique de Shakespere et ce, dès ces premiers efforts de la sorte. Le troisième chapitre soutient que Beaucoup de Bruit pour Rien et Le Marchand de Venise offrent des exemples parangons du phénomène par lequel des personnages mélancoliques refusent de tempérer leurs comportements afin de se joindre aux célébrations qui clouent chaque pièce. La mélancolie que l’on retrouve ici génère une ambiguïté émotionnelle qui complique sa présence au sein du genre comique. Le chapitre suivant identifie Comme il vous plaira et La Nuit des Rois comme l’apogée du traitement comique de la mélancolie entrepris par Shakespeare. Je suggère que ces pièces démontrent l’instant où les caractérisations corporelles de la mélancolie ne sont plus de mise pour le style dramatique vers lequel Shakespeare se tourne progressivement. Le dernier chapitre analyse donc Périclès, prince de Tyr et Le Conte d’Hiver afin de démontrer que, dans la dernière phase de sa carrière théâtrale, Shakespeare a recours aux taxonomies comiques élucidées ultérieurement afin de créer une mélancolie spectrale qui s’attardent au-delà des pièces qu’elle hante. Cette caractérisation se rapporte aux principes de l’art impressionniste, puisqu’elle promeut l’abandon de la précision au niveau du texte pour favoriser les réponses émotionnelles que les pièces véhiculent. Finalement, ma conclusion démontre que Les Deux Nobles Cousins représente la culmination du développement de la mélancolie dans les comédies de Shakespeare, où l’incarnation spectrale du chapitre précèdent atteint son paroxysme. La nature collaborative de la pièce suggère également un certain rituel transitif entre la mélancolie dite Shakespearienne et celle développée par John Fletcher à l’intérieure de la même pièce. / My dissertation argues for a reconsideration of melancholy as an integral component of Shakespearean comedy. I analyse its presence across the comic canon, from early farcical plays through mature comic works, to the late romances that conclude Shakespeare’s career. In doing so, I denote its shift from an individual, humoural characterization to a more spectral incarnation that engrains itself in the dramatic fabric of the plays it inhabits. Ultimately, its manifestation purports to the cyclical nature of emotions and the mixture of mirth and sadness that the aforementioned late plays put forth. The thesis repositions Shakespearean melancholy away from humoural, psychoanalytical and other theoretical frameworks and towards an early modern context, where the term “melancholy” channels a plethora of social, scientific, and dramatic meanings. After a brief overview of the prevalence of melancholy in early modern England, the following chapters attest to the pervasiveness of melancholy within Shakespeare’s comic corpus, suggesting that, rather than a mere foil to the spirits of mirth and revelry, it proves elemental to comic structures as an agent of dramatic progression that fundamentally alters its generic make-up. I initially consider the ways in which melancholy is developed in The Comedy of Errors and Love’s Labor’s Lost, as an isolated condition, easily dismissible by what I refer to as the symmetrical structure of comic resolution. In both plays, I suggest, the failure to completely eradicate melancholy translates into highly ambiguous comic conclusions that pave the way for subsequent comic works, where melancholy’s presence grows increasingly cumbersome. Chapter three reads Much Ado about Nothing and The Merchant of Venice as prime dramatic examples of the phenomenon by which prominent comic characters not only fail to offer a clear cause for their overwhelming melancholy, but refuse to mitigate it for the benefit of the plays at hand. The melancholy found here creates emotional loose ends from which a sense of malaise that will take full effect in later comedies emanates. In the next chapter, As You Like It and Twelfth Night are held as a landmark in Shakespeare’s treatment of comic melancholy. The chapter suggests that these plays complete the break from individual melancholic characterization, which no longer seem suitable to the comic style towards which Shakespeare progressively turns. Consequently, the final chapter undertakes an analysis of Pericles and The Winter’s Tale to demonstrate the fact that, in his concluding dramatic phase, Shakespeare returns to the comic taxonomies of melancholy in order to foster more forceful, lingering emotional impacts as a form of dramatic impressionism, a relinquishing of details in favour of more powerful emotional responses. In a brief coda, I read The Two Noble Kinsmen as the culmination of the dramatic treatment in melancholy in Shakespeare, where the spectral wistfulness that characterized the late plays reaches a breaking point. I suggest that the play bears witness to a passing of the torch, as it were, between the Shakespearean dramatization of melancholy and the one propounded by Fletcher, which was to become the norm within subsequent seventeenth-century tragicomic works.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 238-244). Also available via World Wide Web.