Aristophanes and Women

by Lauren K. Taaffe

Working from the combined perspective of feminist literary theory and performance theory, Lauren Taaffe takes an unprecedented look at the representation of women in the plays of Aristophanes. Her analysis of the relationship between ancient and contemporary theatrical representation and gender identity brings a new critical perspective to Aristophanic studies. Taaffe discusses the portrayal of women in all of Aristophanes' extant plays, but focuses on Lysistrata , Thesmophoriazusae and Ecclesiazusae . Her main contention is that Aristophanes' representation of women draws upon the ancient Greek construction of femininity as being inherently artificial and deceptive--a construction of femininity that is directly related to the convention of male actors playing female roles.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published December 6, 1993

Reviews

[Anna]

read for *uni* for analysis on gender in lysistrata
taaffe is fantastic anyway, but the way in which she focuses on the fact that these women on the stage are displaying transvestite comedy - so the audience are always aware of their real gender - is absolutely fantastic. we love a good bit of metatheatrical analysis.
i also liked the work on the spectator's gaze / the male gaze through dolan's (1988) film criticism - it's nice to see classicists break out of classical confines and use other disciplines' research.