Character and Method in Plato\u27s Republic

It is obvious enough that Plato\u27s literary style, including his use of dramatic form and character, alters drastically along with his philosophical method. It is most economical, though not essential, to attribute these parallel changes to Plato\u27s own chronological development. As Guthrie puts it, Plato began by giving vivid pictures of Socrates engaged on his mission, and as he went on became more concerned to develop positive doctrines. He retains the dialogue form, but it becomes less dramatic and pictorial and he allows Socrates to indulge in uncharacteristically long discourses only punctuated by expressions of assent from the others (HGP iv.42). But why? Why does Plato use dramatic form to portray Socratic inquiry in the early dialogues? And why does he employ that form so differently when representing more positive ideas? The Republic is a unique crucible for examining such questions, because of the marked alteration in literary and philosophical style after the first book. Book 1 resembles the early or Socratic or elenctic dialogues, and as such deploys dramatic form and character very differently from the remainder of the work. Since Books 2-10 are clearly intended as a continuation of Book 1 (whatever their relative dates), we may expect the stylistic shifts to tell us something about Plato\u27s own shifting attitudes towards philosophical method and its literary expression. I shall therefore start by looking at the characters of Socrates\u27 interlocutors in book 1 of the Republic, and trying to elucidate the relationship of characterization to the method that is portrayed there. I\u27ll then turn to the radically different dramatic style of the rest of the work, and end by considering some possible reasons for this evolution

Humour et érotisme dans l'Antiquité grecque et romaine. Introduction au dossier "Humoerotica"

International audienceThese papers examine ways in which humor can, in different cultural contexts, be bound up with with gender and eroticism, and thus reveal norms and values specific to the Greek and Roman worlds. By historicizing both "laughter" and "sexuality", and being particularly sensitive to the physical performance contexts of various cultural practices, the authors develop new interpretations of a variety of sources (images on symposium pottery, Athenian comedy, courtroom oratory, Socratic dialogue, Latin epigram, prose fiction). The neologism humoerotica, which plays on the often anachronistic association of homoeroticism with antiquity, exemplifies our commitment to the use of fluid heuristic categories for exploring cultures “before sexuality”--a territory less familiar than is often supposed.Ce dossier propose une réflexion sur la façon dont l’humour peut, dans différentes performances culturelles, impliquer le genre et l’érotisme, et ainsi révéler des normes et des valeurs propres aux mondes grec et romain. En historicisant à la fois la notion de « rire » et de « sexualité », et en étant particulièrement sensibles au contexte concret de performance des différentes pratiques culturelles, les auteurs de ce dossier développent des analyses nouvelles à partir de documents variés (images et vaisselle de banquet, comédie attique, procès, dialogue socratique mis en scène, épigramme romaine, fiction en prose). Le néologisme Humoerotica joue avec le lien que l’on fait souvent – et de façon anachronique – entre homoérotisme et Antiquité : il s’agit par ce clin d’œil humoristique d’affirmer une volonté de recourir à des catégories heuristiques fluides pour explorer un territoire « d’avant la sexualité », bien moins familier qu’on ne le pense souvent

Ancient Sex: New Essays

Item embargoed for five year

When you were a smile on your Mother\u27s lips and a twinkle on [first line of chorus]

Performers: Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Joan BlondellPiano, Voice and Chord

Try to see it my way, baby, don\u27t break up a beautiful affair [first line of chorus]

Performers: Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Joan BlondellPiano, Voice and Chord

What do you go for, go see a show for? [first line of chorus]

Performers: Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Joan BlondellPiano, Voice and Chord