Thesis title: Comic Exemplarity: A Study of Aristophanes' Paradeigmata
This thesis investigates the paradeigmata in Aristophanes’ extant comedies, in order to reconstruct the practices of exemplarity in comedy and broaden our knowledge of exemplarity in 5th century literature. In the first part, the characteristic features of comic paradeigmata are identified through the analysis of case studies. Comic exemplarity thus emerges as a specific articulation of exemplarity tout court. The comic poet maintains the traditional use of paradeigmata as means of persuasion and develops additional functions, required by the literary genre, i.e. dramatic advancement and humour. The second part of the thesis consists in a comparative analysis, to define the relationship between exemplarity in comedy and in contemporary literary genres, i.e. tragedy, historiography and oratory. This investigation reveals a close connection between comic and tragic exemplarity, as well as occasional contacts between the paradeigmata in comedy and those in historiography and oratory. These results suggest a progressive evolution of exemplarity in comedy. A communal use of paradeigmata, which meets the demands imposed by the dramatic performance, seems to have been developed both in tragedy and comedy. A further development appears typical of comedy, which has absorbed some features of the paradeigmata in other genres and created the function of humour. Overall, this investigation shows the deep interactions, in terms of paradeigmata, of comedy and contemporary literary genres, and emphasizes the relevance of comedy to reconstructing exemplarity in the 5th century.