Etudes balkaniques is a quarterly peer-review journal, which has been publishing research since 1964. Research papers related to the Balkan countries in French, English, German, Russian and Italian have appeared in it, thus making them available to a wide scientific community across borders.
ON THE MIRACULOUS TURNS IN ARISTOPHANES’ CLOUDS
Nevena Panova
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
Abstract: The article aims at analysing Aristophanes’ Clouds through certain miraculous elements among the poetic devices for evoking the audience’s laughter. The miraculous is present at different levels of the comic text, in explicit or in more implicit form. In Clouds the type of education in sophistry represented here by “Socrates” could be defined first of all as miraculous. Aristophanes uses mainly verbal mechanisms to make the spectators laugh. The speeches throughout the plot are strange, absurd and funny. Typical comic turns of the situation and of the opinions of the characters are observed, too. The end of the play is unexpected and to a degree “tragic.” The extant text of Clouds is a revision of an earlier unsuccessful play. This failure is discussed in the parabasis: although through irony and boasts, the self-referential view of the poet on writing a good comedy becomes clear.
Keywords: Aristophanes, Clouds, Comic Humour, Miraculous, Sophistic Education
