Rhetoric, Comedy, and the Violence of Language in Aristophanes' Clouds [Hardcover]

This is an intelligent and unusually thought-provoking reading of Aristophanes'Clouds. O'Regan focuses onlogos, or the power of argument, and its effects, and on the self-awareness of the secondCloudsas a comedy oflogosdirected toward an audience made resistant by devotion to the body. Within and without the play,logosmeets defeat when confronted with human nature and desire. The argument conveys much insight into fifth-century thought and the play's workings, the more so because it balances rhetoric with comedy, and reminds the reader that this is a comiclogos--explored in the comic mode, and connected with the intentions and vicissitudes of the first and secondClouds.

[A] provocative new reading of Aristophanes'Clouds....O'Regan has studiedCloudsvery carefully, and future scholars will be indebted to her for many details of observation and analysis....Her treatment of the two Logoi is well-balanced and funny, perhaps the best I have seen. --American Journalof Philology

Both illuminating and useful. Anyone who works on comedy or teaches theCloudswill welcome this thoughtful treatment of such an important and complicated comedy. --Bryn Mawr Classical Review

This reading of the play is intelligent, perceptive, and very detailed, and should be consulted by everyone with an interest in Old Comedy. --Greece & Rome

Perceptive....[An] intelligent study. --New England Classical Newsletter & Journal