Aristophanes And Women

Working from the combined perspective of feminist literary theory and performance theory, Lauren Taaffe takes an unprecedented look at the representation of women in the plays of Aristophanes. Her analysis of the relationship between ancient and contemporary theatrical representation and gender identity brings a new critical perspective to Aristophanic studies. Taaffe discusses the portrayal of women in all of Aristophanes' extant plays, but focuses on Lysistrata, Thesmophoriazusae and Ecclesiazusae. Her main contention is that Aristophanes' representation of women draws upon the ancient Greek construction of femininity as being inherently artificial and deceptive--a construction of femininity that is directly related to the convention of male actors playing female roles.