Sunday, November 8, 2009

Helpful resources for Aristophanes and the Clouds

I plan to post soon about the problems I've encountered while translating the "Better/Worse Argument" scene, but for now I thought I'd start a thread for helpful resources for better understanding a number of things: the context of the original Clouds, tricks for translating Aristophanes, and dramaturgical details. Feel free to add sources that you find helpful. Some of these will probably be painfully obvious (I've withheld Dover on the grounds that he is just too obvious), others perhaps less so. All of them should be in Green Library or online.

D. M. MacDowell.1995. Aristophanes and Athens. Oxford. "Clouds" chapter.

A. M. Bowie. 1993. Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual, Comedy. Cambridge. Chapter 5.

Martin Revermann. 2006. Comic Business. Oxford. Chapter 5.

Martha Nussbaum. 1980. "Aristophanes and Socrates on learning practical wisdom." YCS.

Alan Sommerstein. 1973. "On translating Aristophanes." G&R 20.

American Journal of Philology, vol. 123 no. 3 (2002): special issue on "Performing/transforming Aristophanes' 'Thesmophoriazusae'". See esp. Gamel's longer essay: she's a skilled updater of Aristophanes and an admirer of our Acharnians production.


Any other suggestions?