Democratic Swarms : Ancient Comedy and the Politics of the People

**Considers how ancient Greek comedy offers a model for present-day politics.** With __Democratic Swarms__, Page duBois revisits the role of Greek comedy in ancient politics, considering how it has been overlooked as a political medium by modern theorists and critics. Moving beyond the popular readings of ancient Greece through the lens of tragedy, she calls for a revitalized look at Greek comedy. Rather than revisiting the sufferings of Oedipus and his family or tragedy’s relationship to questions of sovereignty, this book calls for comedy—its laughter, its free speech, its wild swarming animal choruses, and its rebellious women—to inform another model of democracy. Ancient comedy has been underplayed in the study of Greek drama. Yet, with the irrepressible energy of the comic swarm, it provides a unique perspective on everyday life, gender and sexuality, and the utopian politics of the classical period of Athenian democracy. Using the concepts of swarm intelligence and nomadic theory, duBois augments tragic thought with the __resistant__, utopian, libidinous, and often joyous communal legacy of comedy, and she connects the lively anti-authoritarianism of the ancient comic chorus with the social justice movements of today. "This book revisits the role of Greek comedy in ancient politics and how it has been overlooked as a political medium by modern theorists and critics. It critiques the neglect that Greek comedy has suffered due to our great affection for tragedy as a model of democracy and offers a remedy. The Greeks loved their comedies as much or even more than their tragedies. The book focuses on the collective aspects of ancient drama, especially comedy, with its swarming choruses that are represented as wielding great if ambivalent power within and beyond the confines of the dramatic setting. DuBois shows how ancient comedy (including, but not limited to, plays by Aristophanes), its laughter, its free speech, its wild swarming animal choruses and rebellious women can be used to establish another model of democracy, one grounded in the collective. DuBois advocates for a broader view that takes into account the resistant communal legacy of comedy, the roar of the demos or the disenfranchised, not just the individual voices of the powerful"-- Provided by publisher Contents Preface Introduction Chapter 1. The Tragic Individual: The Tyranny of Oedipus and Antigone Chapter 2. The Swarm Chapter 3. Chorus Chapter 4. Utopias Chapter 5. Parrhesia: Saying It All Chapter 6. Democracy, Communalism, Communism Chapter 7. Epilogue: The Politics of the Present Acknowledgments Notes Selected Bibliography Index