Abstract

The dissertation is an attempt to reconstruct Aristotle's concept of comic reversal. Sources for the reconstruction include Aristotle's own remarks about peripeteia, other reconstructions and the Tractatus Coislinianus. Aristophanes is considered as Aristotle's model comic poet, and each of his plays is analyzed for comic reversals. Reversals of action constitute Aristophanes' social and political arguments. ;Generally, reversals are a change in the course of action, a change that leads towards the opposite outcome. Five different kinds of plot reversals are derived from Aristotle's Poetics and his other works. Two different directions for reversals of action are discussed, a movement from bad to good actions or from good to bad actions. Reversals are contrasted with changes of fortune, but they still include a complication , a midpoint of change in the course of a play's action toward better or worse actions and an unravelling . The midpoint of a reversal marks a change in the course of the action. The most general and best form of comic reversal is the 'opposite effect' reversal with a coincident recognition. ;The sources of comic actions are drawn from the topoi for comic actions found in the Tractatus Coislinianus. Reversals can be actions 'from the impossible,' 'from the possible and inconsequential' and 'from the unexpected.' A reversal moves between a mean and an extreme of action delimited by contrary poles . ;The analysis of Aristophanes' plots shows that almost all the plays follow one of two patterns. Both patterns employ two separate, but overlapping reversals. Following the first pattern, bad actions are transformed into good and then bad, and finally to good again. In the second pattern, bad actions are transformed into good actions, and then good actions are transformed to bad. The two patterns result from the sorts of actions imitated: either a bad social or political idea is critiqued by following pattern two, or a good social or political action is applauded by following pattern one