Lexington Books
Pages: 164
Trim: 6 x 9¼
978-0-7391-0833-8 • Hardback • March 2005 • $117.00 • (£90.00)
Kenneth M. De Luca is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at Hampden-Sydney College.
Chapter 1 Paphlagon: Democracy's Tragic Tendency
Chapter 2 Demosthenes' Comic Plan
Chapter 3 The Deposing of Zeus
Chapter 4 The End of Demos' Democratization
Chapter 5 The Final Victory of Pleasure
Chapter 6 Praxagora's Lamp
Chapter 7 Praxagora's Political Philosophy: A Study of Her Rehearsal Speech
Chapter 8 The Price of Unity
Chapter 9 Praxagora's City of Pigs: The Hag Scene
Chapter 10 The Political Allegory of the Assemblywomen
In this fine analysis of two of Aristophanes' comedies, Kenneth De Luca shows the Athenian playwright to have offered a profound analysis of the fundamental problems of democratic politics, including the complex relation between politics and human nature. I strongly recommend Aristophanes' Male and Female Revolutions to students and scholars of political philosophy as well as of classical literature.
— David Lewis Schaefer, Holy Cross College
De Luca's juxtaposition of the Knights and the Assemblywomen is richly rewarding. His penetrating analysis offers fresh insights into the philosophic significance of Aristophanes' plays.
— Denise Schaeffer, Holy Cross College
According to ancient sources, Friedrich Nietzsche reports, Plato slept with Aristophanes under his pillow. Why was the political philosopher so enthralled by the works of this comic poet? De Luca helps us understand the fascination Aristophanes had for Plato by analyzing the possibilities and problems of democratic politics as presented in the Knights and the Assemblywomen.
— Catherine H. Zuckert