A COMÉDIA PALLIATA NA PERSPECTIVA NÃO-ARISTOTÉLICA DE FLORENCE DUPONT: A FUNÇÃO LÚDICA DO PRÓLOGO DE RUDENS E CAPTIVI

Abstract

The palliata comedy (fabula palliata) is the Roman Comedy in which the main actors used the pallium and its authors were based on texts from the Greek New Comedy (Nea). Such plays were presented in scenic games (ludi scaenici), in honor of the gods. This article, which derives from Oliveira's master's thesis (2022), investigates the function of the prologue of the comedies Rudens and Captivi, by Plautus. The playful function of the prologues stands out as it highlights that the Roman New Comedy is a theater that escapes Aristotelian parameters, showing itself as a theater of play (ludus). A brief overview is given of the cultural and religious context in which Roman comedies were inserted, aiming to elucidate that the performance was part of a ritual. Next, a study of the prologues of Rudens and Captivi is carried out, focusing the analyzes on metatheatrical jokes and ironies, perceived through moralizations and sententiae (“sentences” or “maxims”, in English). In addition to Dupont's (2017) non-Aristotelian theatrical perspective, the works of Duckworth (1994) and Moore (1998) on Roman Comedy, as well as Mora (2003) in his reflections on dramatic irony, also help the analysis. This research on the prologues of Rudens and Captivi adds evidence to the thesis defended by Dupont that nothing in Roman comedy refers to Aristotle. Furthermore, sententiae are shown to be a specific technique arising from the game carried out with the dissimulation of morals; these procedures are present in the two comedies studied and allow us to identify the jokes made in the prologue.