The emotions of the laughable. Comic invective and emotional manipulation in archaic Greek iambography and in Old Comedy

Abstract

In recent decades, research on emotions has gained greater relevance within the field of classical studies. An outstanding and innovative point of this perspective –with regard specifically to the literary sphere– is that the notions of emotion and affect help to conceptualize the frame of reference that governs the reception of a given text. To a certain extent, this implies understanding the emotional dimension that arises and manifests itself in the instance of poetic or dramatic performance as a constitutive element of the literary genre –beyond formal and normative characterizations.This paper aims to examine in archaic Greek iambography (Archilochus of Paros and Hipponax of Ephesus) and in ancient comedy (Aristophanes) the forms of manipulation of emotions in the laughable ἐχθρός construction through ψόγος.