Titus Maccius Plautus:
From Page to Stage

International Conference 
11‒14 November 2019

Conference programme

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Download in pdf

Monday

11th November

  • 17:00–18:00

    Registration

    Main Conference venue, room A21, Faculty of Arts (Arna Nováka 1)

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  • 18:00–20:00

    Official opening and Welcome reception

Tuesday

12th November

I. Plautus on Page
(Linguistic Aspects, Interpretation, Vocabulary)

Chair: Daniela Urbanová (Brno)

  • 8:30–9:00

    Registration

    Main Conference venue, room A21, Faculty of Arts (Arna Nováka 1)

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  • 9:00–9:30

    Pierluigi Cuzzolin (Bergamo)

    The Function of the Punic Language in Plautus' Poenulus

    Abstract and Bio

    The presence of a long passage and some short sentences in Punic in Plautus' Poenulus have always been considered puzzling, if not disturbing, by many scholars. This issue has been raising several questions for decades concerning the textual function performed by the passage in Punic, the identity of the receiver, the reliability of the language itself. In this paper, a new interpretation of the function of the Punic passage and consequently of the entire comedy will be proposed.

    Pierluigi Cuzzolin (1959) graduated from the University of Pavia in 1985. In 1991 he received his PhD in linguistics, published in 1993 under the title Studio sull'origine della costruzione dicere quod: aspetti sintattici e semantici. He is Full Professor of General and Historical Linguistics since 2005. His main interests are historical linguistics, linguistic typology and linguistic theoretical models. He was the representative for Italy in the International Board of Greek Linguistics (2016–2018) and is Co-editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Latin Linguistics, published by de Gruyter.

  • 9:30–10:00

    Oswald Panagl (Salzburg)

    Rhetorical Questions: Types, Tokens and Function in the Poetic Language of Plautus (Especially in Amphitruo)

    Abstract

    Rhetorical questions are syntactic and stylistic hybrids oscillating between emphatic interrogative clauses and -as a form of indirect speech act- a marked variant of affirmation. Sometimes, such utterances correspond to negative statements; e.g. quis me miserior est? is nearly identical with respect to semantic as well as pragmatic parameters with an alternative sentence such as nemo me miserior est. Also in “paradigmatic” kinds of comparison tokens such as quid melle dulcius est? and nihil melle dulcius est coincide as far as their semantic profile is concerned. The paper deals with the most relevant passages in Amphitruo  as a piece, which shares moments of conversational and conventional comedy along with features of mythological travesty. The aim of the investigation is a quantitative result, i.e. frequency of the items under consideration, as well as a qualitative differentiation represented in the form of a scale of notions and connotations.

  • 10:00–10:30

    Coffee break

  • 10:30–11:00

    Łukasz Berger (Poznań)

    Verbal Interaction in Plautus' Casina

    Abstract and Bio

    In recent years, there have been significant advances in the study of comedy dialogues from communicative and pragmatic perspectives. The plays by Plautus and Terence have proven to be a crucial source to investigate linguistic politeness, discourse markers and speech acts, to name but a few. The present paper aims to show how the insights from those pragmatically oriented studies might shed more light on the on-stage interaction, as designed in the text at our disposal. During my presentation, I will focus on the dynamics of taking turns speaking by the characters of one selected play, Plautus' Casina. Different conversational styles (collaborative vs disruptive) will be related to the speakers' social status and gender, while the pace and structure of dialogues will be confronted with the scene type. As a way of conclusion, I will stress the importance of nuanced linguistic analysis for studying dramaturgical aspects of Plautus' comedies.

    Łukasz Berger earned his doctoral degree in 2015 after defending a thesis on pragmatic aspects of dialogue opening in Plautus. Currently, he is working as an assistant professor in the Classical Department of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland), where he continues his investigation of verbal interaction in Roman comedy. He is also a co-director of students' theatre Sfinga which every year stages its own interpretation of ancient comedies (Plautus, Terence, Aristophanes).

  • 11:00–11:30

    Goran Vidović (Beograd)

    The Prologue of Plautus’ Casina: Evidence of Revival Performance or One Final Joke?

    Abstract and Bio

    Since the Casina prologue refers to the play’s revival, parts of the prologue (5–22) have been traditionally interpreted as later interpolation documenting that revival performance. Yet that same part of the prologue features poetologic imagery paralleled throughout the play itself, betraying a much more organic relation than one would expect from a revival production notice that is simply patched onto the existing script. That would mean that the text of the play must have undergone considerable interventions so as to correspond to the newly-composed revival prologue. A more plausible alternative scenario, is to take the prologue not as evidence of revival but as a genuinely Plautine joke about his own revival. Internal clues (humorous references to the SC de Bacchanalibus, dated 186 BCE) indicate that the Casina might be one of Plautus’ last plays, possibly last—a ‘swansong’ occasion for joking about his afterlife. A selection of ancient sources illustrate the rationale behind calculated contribution to one’s own immediate posthumous legacy.

    Goran Vidović is a Latinist with a strong interest in ancient drama, from Aeschylus to late-antiquity, and beyond. He has published on Greek tragedy, Aristophanes, Livy, Roman comedy, late antique comedy, and early Christian apocrypha; his doctoral dissertation is on metapoetry in Terence (Cornell 2016). He teaches various advanced level Latin courses (comedy, satire, prose composition), and enjoys producing select palliata scenes with students in Latin.

  • 11:30–12:00

    Joanna Pieczonka (Wrocław)

    Explaining Verbal Humour to the Audience – The Case of Plautine Neologisms

    Abstract and Bio

    Fingere verba seems to be a frequent practice of Plautus who uses the language to increase the comicality of his plays. Such facetious neologisms must have been understood by the audience, otherwise the jokes would not make any sense in the comedies. However, there are few passages where the author explains his new coined lexemes through the words of the characters of the play. In my speech I wish to examine these utterances to check, why in these particular places Plautus discloses the process of word formation, how does he describe and call neologisms and does it help the spectators to perceive and appreciate his verbal innovations. My preliminary research shows that most of these passages concern legal neologisms (intestabilis — Cur. 30–32; parenticidaEpid. 349–351; raboTruc. 687–690) and one of them contains a comic name (SubballioPs. 607–609). The playwright explains the etymology of the new Latin words or shows how he adapts a Greek wordplay (arrabo–rabo) for the Roman spactators. Thus he intensifies the power of the jokes and their impact on the audience.

    Joanna Picezonka was awarded with her MA degree in Classics in 2005 (thesis: Law and mos maiorum in Plautus’ comedies) and then she continued to do a PhD on Reception of Roman Legal Thought in Plautine Comedies (dissertation in 2010). Afterwards she joined the Department of Latin in the Institute of Classical, Mediterranean and Oriental Studies in Wrocław, where nowadays she continues to work as an assistant professor. Meanwhile she finished MA studies in Law (thesis defended in 2004: The Legal Character of the Franchising Agreement). In her work she constantly tries to combine her two main research areas: Roman law and Latin literature.

  • 12:00–13:30

    Lunch break

    Where to eat

II. Tradition and Adaptation

Chair: Irena Radová (Brno)

  • 13:30–14:00

    János Nagyillés (Szeged)

    Plautus for a Male Voice – A Plautus Adaptation in József Rájnis’s Play Ikerek (Twins)

    Abstract and Bio

    Ikerek, József Rájnis’s (17411812) Plautus adaptation is a peculiar piece from Hungarian school drama’s vast history. What Rájnis does to the Plautine Menaechmi is similar to what Plautus does to Hellenistic patterns of contemporary comedic poetry: he translates, then adapts the material to Hungarian rapports. The story takes place in the time of Louis I, conquering the Balkan; the location is Zadar. This play, written for clergymen of the Győr diocese, omits the prostitute from the original, while the wife of Tamás Orros, the Hungarian Menaechmus from Zadar, is also silent, except for one off-stage exclamation. However, limits of female and male roles are thematised through clothes (a carnival costume) snitched from the wife.

    Rájnis aims to write a corrected version of the original – the introduction, Rescuing Text, for a never published edition is also available: in this, based partly on Horatian principles, he both protects and critiques the original. His adaptation is partly a translation, searching for possible Hungarian Iambic verses by reproducing complex Plautine verses into free Iambs. With this, Rájnis prepares the prosodic debates of the Hungarian language reform, in which he was actively involved through his translation of Virgil’s Eclogues and, later, Georgica, and his theoretical writings.

    János Nagyillés is a fellow of the Department of Classical Philology and Neo-Latin Studies from the University of Szeged and a member of Antiquity and Renaissance: Sources and Reception Research Group. His main research field is the Roman epic poetry of the 1st century; in the past few years he has been researching female poets writing in Latin, too. He is interested in the problems and possibilities of translation: the main topics of this discourse are authenticity vs. loyalty to form, as it is possible to reproduce in Hungarian language every metric form used in antique poetry.

  • 14:00–14:30

    Julia Jennifer Beine (Bochum)

    Plautus Goes America: The Adaptation of Rudens by the Ladies’ Literary Society of Washington University

    Abstract and Bio

    “[…] there is to be a renaissance of the Latin Drama, and […] St. Louis is to be its chief theatre.”

    In 1884, the first performance of a Roman Comedy in Latin took place in America: The Ladies’ Literary Society of Washington University staged Plautus’ Rudens in Latin while providing an English translation for their academic and especially their non-academic audience. This performance offers a unique opportunity to analyse the society’s understanding and interpretation of Plautus’ play as well as their adaption for the 19th century stage. For instance, several passages were redacted because the society thought they were lacking either action or humour. Considering the audience, they abandoned extensive digressions on ancient religion. Furthermore, their translation shows how they dealt with Plautine characteristics such as coarse humour, wordplays or cantica while adjusting the play to modern ideals of language and style. The analysis will also consider how gender may have influenced the performance as well as the work on and with the text. I will explore how the society adapted the male characters and misogynistic phrases for an all-female cast. St. Louis’ archives provide material on this performance, including critiques with descriptions of the stage, costumes and the reactions of the audience—among them the enthusiastic reporter quoted above.

    Julia Jennifer Beine is a Classicist and Comparatist and pursues interdisciplinary approaches in the analysis of ancient literature. Her PhD thesis focuses on the reception of Roman Comedy on the European stage from the 16th to the 18th century. She is particularly interested in the adaption of the slave characters and their contribution to the development of Early Modern Comedy. Furthermore, she has done research on the phenomenon of the uncanny (German: “das Unheimliche”) in ancient literature exemplified by the uncanny-comic haunted house in Plautus’ Mostellaria (accepted for publication). She has also worked on an edition of the so-called “Schlegel-Tieck-Shakespeare” (to be published).

  • 14:30–15:00

    Tamás Jászay (Szeged)

    Only a God Could Be a More Perfect Actor than a Man: On a Contemporary Amphitryon Reading

    Abstract and Bio

    In 2018 Péter Závada (born 1982), a known and popular Hungarian poet, ex-slammer published Je suis Amphitryon, a verse drama. Strong polyphony characterises this post-dramatic work: the voice of six mythological characters tell a non-linear story, with no connection to a concrete space or time. From this polyphonic canon secedes the seemingly coherent portrayal of people familiar to us from both mythology and everyday life. With this contemporary tragedy of identity Závada joins a diverse literally tradition, going beyond the myth adaptations of Plautus, Molière or Kleist. Závada boldly continues the drama of Amphitryon, Jupiter and Alcmene, on the one hand giving voice to them, all post-traumatic in his reading, on the other hand approximating the story to our present. (He finds this language through poets reflecting on mythology, like Anne Carson or Carol Ann Duffy.) The meta-theatrical allusions of the Amphitryon trope referring to theatre, impersonation, role-play, masks, already present in the case of Plautus, are given a solid context of theatre theory in Závada’s text. In my presentation I analyse, next to comparing and interpreting these allusions, how the dissolution of identity and the disappearance of the belief in a unified subject are thematised in the Plautine setting.

    Tamás Jászay is an assistant lecturer at the Department of Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Arts of Szeged University, Hungary, where he teaches theatre history, theatre theory, world literature, myth criticism. His main research field is contemporary theatre. He is a guest lecturer at the University of Theater and Film Arts in Budapest, giving lectures about trends in contemporary theatre. Besides that, he is a theatre critic and editor of the critical portal called Revizor (www.revizoronline.com).

  • 15:00–15:30

    Coffee break

  • 15:30–16:00

    T. H. M. Gellar-Goad (Winston-Salem)

    Reception ex nihilo: Doubling, Improvisation, and Metatheater in Plautine Comedy and Seinfeld

    Abstract and Bio

    This paper presents a focused comparative study of two of the most influential and most metacomedically aware sitcoms in the Western world: the Roman comedy of Plautus and the 1990s NBC series Seinfeld. Three kinds of dramatic techniques are particularly rich points of comparison. Both Plautus and Seinfeld use doubling of characters, plots, and scenes to tie together episodic narratives, to bring out aspects of characterization latent in stock types, and to draw attention to underlying themes or social issues. In each, both improvisation and especially scripted "improvisation" by characters drive plots forward (or derail plots in favor of funny business). And metatheater in its basic "play within a play" form, in fourth-wall-breaking jokes and storylines, and in comic parody of other genres  is central to the character of Plautine comedy and Seinfeld both. While there are no direct allusions to Plautus in Seinfeld, paired close readings of comic routines and techniques illuminate understandings of each. Plautus helps us better see how the humor in Seinfeld functions, and Seinfeld vividly illustrates the successful staging methods and subtle acting choices that enlivened Plautine performance but have largely evaporated in the manuscript tradition.

    T. H. M. Gellar-Goad is Associate Professor of Classics and Zachary T. Smith Fellow at Wake Forest University. He specializes in Roman poetry, especially the funny stuff: Roman comedy, Roman satire, Roman erotic elegy, and — if you believe him — the allegedly philosophical poet Lucretius. He is the author of Laughing Atoms, Laughing Matter: Lucretius' De Rerum Natura and Satire, forthcoming from University of Michigan Press.

  • 16:00–16:30

    Klaudia Stachowicz (Poznań)

    Plautus and the Italian commedia erudita

    Abstract and Bio

    Plautus’ plays have exerted a massive influence on the development of comedy over the centuries and have become an inspiration for authors choosing a comedy genre. During my presentation, I will focus on the Renaissance work of the Italian writer Ludovico Ariosto, who developed a previously unknown type of humanistic comedy, commedia erudita. I will concentrate on his play La Cassaria, which has as a model Plautus' Cistellaria and, moreover, is considered the first commedia erudita. I will also mention the circumstances of the creation of the Ariosto’s comedy and his connection with the family d'Este and the city of Ferrara. Then, I will proceed to recount historical facts that influenced the emerging interest in Sarsinate's plays during the Renaissance. Finally, I will seek to compare La Cassaria with its ancient model in order to indicate both the most distinctive Plautine features and the elements of innovation in Ariosto's reworking of the genre.

    Klaudia Stachowicz is a student of master degree Mediterranean Studies at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań at the Faculty of Polish and Classical Philology. She is interested in the culture and languages of the Mediterranean countries and the ancient civilizations of these areas. In addition, she is fascinated by travel and tourism. She spent six months living and studying in Italy. In 2018 she defended her BA thesis on the carnival traditions in Europe, comparing the elements of the contemporary carnival to Roman Saturnalia and medieval fools' feasts. She is currently preparing to defend her master thesis on Plautus' influence on Italian erudite comedy.

Evening Programme

  • 18:00–19:30

    Theatre performance

    Plautus: Curculio or Darmojed

    New Czech translation of Plautus' Curculio staged by the students of the Department of Classical Studies, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno.

    The piece is going to be staged in Czech, but a booklet with English and Polish translations of some parts of the play will be available.

    University Cinema Scala (Moravské náměstí 3)

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  • From 19:45

    Conference dinner

    Stopkova plzeňská pivnice (Česká 5)

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Wednesday

13th November

III. Plautus on Page
(Context – Ritual and Religion)

Chair: Juraj Franek (Brno)

  • 9:00–9:30

    Radek Černoch (Brno)

    Purchase and Theft of Planesium in Curculio

    Abstract and Bio

    In Plautus' Curculio, there are many legal terms and notions mentioned, both intentional and unintentional. One group of them is connected with the character of Planesium, who is a free person, but is considered being a slave the major part of the play. Thus, she is (supposedly) the object of purchase and theft. This paper examines to which extent it corresponds to the legal regulation and how the situation changes after the proof that she is not a slave.

    Radek Černoch is a lawyer, his primary focus is Roman law of succession. He is also Ph.D. student of classical philology with focus on translating legal texts (esp. the Digests) from Latin. He teaches Roman law (Faculty of Law, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic) and Latin for Students of Romance Languages (within the frame of his Ph.D. studies, Faculty of Arts, the same university). He is a co-author of Czech translation of Plautus’ comedy Curculio.

  • 9:30–10:00

    Andrzej Gillmeister (Zielona Góra)

    Rituals at Stage: Roman Religion in Plautus' Comedies

    Abstract and Bio

    In my paper I would like to answer the following questions:
    1) how Plautus treated the Roman religion in the context of the genre limitations of the literary genre he cultivated;
    2) did he distinguish the official religion from the so-called private one, or did he treat it as the two facets of the same phenomenon?
    3) does his work bring something new to our understanding of the Roman religion?
    4) what role may purely literary sources play in the Roman religion research?

    Andrzej Gillmeister's main fields of study include Roman religion in its historical and historiographical dimensions.

  • 10:00–10:30

    Blaž Ploj (Graz/Erfurt)

    Imagining Ritual in the Mostellaria

    Abstract and Bio

    In the comedies of Plautus, rituals represent a significant performative element and an important reference field for the recipients. In addition, in his dramatic texts one stumbles across passages that allow a reconstruction of performance structures which in their presumable materialisation on stage allude to rituals, without enabling the recipient to unambiguously interpret them as ritual acts. However, these patterns of action, elements of representation, smaller sequences of performative operations and other references to ritual actions preserve the emotional charge and affective potential of the original rituals. As a result, these particular performance structures implicitly evoke rituals and provoke specific reception effects.
    In the Mostellaria, during the complexly composed house visiting scene, the clever slave Tranio transforms an ekphrasis of a non-existing picture into a metaphoric description of the concrete performance. The metaphors, performative elements and verbalisations used, I will argue, invite the recipient to imagine a ritual on stage and – by a skilful play with the conventions of theatre – to participate in it, in order to give religious legitimisation to the tricks and pranks carried out by the clever slave. This “implicit ritual” serves as a catalyst of laughter and therefore contributes to the entertainment factor of the comedy.

    After graduating in Latin and Sociology of Culture at the University of Ljubljana, Blaž Ploj worked as a high school teacher and assistant at the Universities of Ljubljana and Maribor. Currently, he is a researcher and PhD candidate at the Department of Classical Philology of the University of Graz, at the University of Erfurt and at the International Graduate School “Resonant Self-World Relations in Ancient and Modern Socio-Religious Practices”.

  • 10:30–11:00

    Coffee break

IV. Plautus on Stage
(Ancient and Modern)

Chair: Łukasz Berger (Poznań)

  • 11:00–11:30

    Robin Dixon (Sydney)

    Distributed Cognition on the Plautine Stage

    Abstract and Bio

    This paper investigates the most mysterious aspects of the theatre of Plautus—actor training, rehearsal, unwritten performance conventions—in light of recent work in theatre history inflected by the developing field of distributed cognition. This interdisciplinary approach, borrowing from psychology, philosophy and sociology, posits that the cognitive demands of complex human activities are spread across resources such as attention, perception, and memory; the experience of bodily practices as they are sedimented in the body; social structures, and the material environment. The related idea of a “cognitive ecology” emphasizes the interplay of internal cognitive mechanisms and social and physical environment. Performance generally is a complex behaviour generating specific and challenging cognitive demands, and as such is an ideal phenomenon for consideration in these terms. This approach may help to close some of the gaps in our knowledge of historical performance practices. Following work by Tribble (2013) and Tribble and Dixon (2018) I will assess the evidence for features of Roman Republican theatrical practice that may have aided the distribution of cognitive pressures, including scaffolding of skill acquisition, use of spatial convention, and use of ‘parts’ in memorisation.

    Robin Dixon is an Honorary Associate of the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, Sydney University. His primary area of research interest is the stagecraft and performance of ancient Roman theatre, but he has taught widely on the history of Western theatre, and pursues a range of interdisciplinary research interests. His PhD thesis on the spatial dramaturgy of Plautine comedy was submitted in 2011, and since then he has taught at Sydney University and the National Institute of Dramatic Art, where he was Convener of Performance Practices 2015-2017.

  • 11:30–12:00

    Bartłomiej Bednarek (Warszawa)

    Performing Tragic Identities: The Madness of Menaechmus

    Abstract and Bio

    It has been long and justly recognised that the scene of the main hero’s madness in Plautus’ Menaechmi (835–71) had been inspired by the tragic tradition. However, the way in which scholars tried to identify its intertext has never been successful, as I intend to argue, mostly because it has usually been assumed that more than one tragedy has been parodied by Plautus, and that he made his character impersonate two, three or even more mythical figures. This seems to be only partially true, as Menaechmus really seems to shift his make-believe identity, following various models of madness. However, these models, as I want to argue, are provided by various characters of a single tragedy – Naevius’ Lycurgus, the drama, which is alluded to (and perhaps even quoted verbatim) by the very first words that Menaechmus speaks in the beginning of the scene († Bromie, quo me in siluam uenatum uocas?). Thanks to a new interpretation of the Naevius’ fragments (along with the Aeschylean Lycurgeia, which had been adapted by the Roman tragic poet), a new understanding of the whole scene is possible, including its performative aspect. Within my reconstruction, of particular importance was the woman’s dress which, in the beginning of the scene, the hero carried in his hands. When he started pretending a madman, he put it on, thus assimilating a tragic cinaedus…

    Bartłomiej Bednarek, MA (2009), PhD (2015) in Classics, Jagiellonian University in Kraków (Poland) 2009. His PhD thesis “Dionysian Myth in Greek Poetry from Homer to Euripides” was published in 2015. From 2014 to 2016 he worked as a research assistant in the project Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Greece in the Light of Philological Data (Jagiellonian University), in 2017 publishing a book “Animal Sacrifice in Aristophanes and Old Comedy”. From December 2016 he is a post-doc fellow at the Institute of History, University of Warsaw, with the project “Cultural Palimpsest: The History of the Greek Myth of Lycurgus, the King of Edonians”.

  • 12:00–12:30

    Katarzyna Kaniecka-Juszczak (Poznań)

    Plautus Today: Various Ideas to Bring Young Audience One Step Closer to Ancient Comedies

    Abstract and Bio

    Students’ Classical Theatre Sfinga that works at the Department of Classical Philology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan has been performing Plautus’ plays for over twenty years. They debuted with comedy Miles Gloriosus in 1997. Over the years they staged various plays of the playwriter in order to prove themselves and their audience that certain themes and Plautine humor are still not only alive but also deeply emerged into the temporary culture.

    The main purpose of Sfinga has always been making their audience familiar with Plautus and while paying special attention to serve the ancient taste. During my lecture I will do my best to show how each spectacle can turn into the double dimension. At first we bring the story from pages to the stage and later from culture to culture. It uses double translation of text and contects.

    In the discourse I will elaborate on the following plays: Miles Gloriosus, Amphitruo, Asinaria, Casina. I will present how owing to available theatrical elements (costumes, music or scenography) we have managed to make some performances acquire new, fresh meanings and some change into musicals, burlesque or operetta. The lecture will be supported by audiovisual presentation.

    Katarzyna Kaniecka-Juszczak is a senior lecturer in the section of Latin language at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan since 2009. The subject of her research has been focused on issues related to Roman comedy, especially its theatrical aspect. She has worked on the matter of stagecraft in plays of ancient comedy. She has developed her interests in the ancient theatre while working as a leader of Students' Classical Theatre "Sfinga". Under her directorship, the theatre presented plays by ancient playwriters such as: Plautus, Terence, Seneca or Aristophanes.

Evening Programme

  • 18:00–19:00

    Theatre performance

    Plautus: Casina or Wesele Bazylii

    New, still unpublished Polish translation of Plautus' Casina staged by the Classics Students' Theatre Sfinga from Poznań.

    The piece is going to be staged in Polish, but a booklet with English and Czech translations of some parts of the play will be available.

    University Cinema Scala (Moravské náměstí 3)

    Show on a map Facebook event

    Download the booklet:

    English Czech Polish

    Watch the video recording:

  • From 19:15

    Conference dinner

    Hotel Pegas (Jakubská 4)

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Thursday

14th November

V. Plautus in Translation

Chair: Markéta Kulhánková (Brno)

  • 9:00–9:30

    Clara Daniel (Marseilles)

    Topicality in Translation: Adaptation of Plautine Realia in Iran Man by Amy Richlin

    Abstract and Bio

    Going against a scholarly perspective, the classicist Amy Richlin chose to adapt Persa (Iran Man, 2005) to a contemporary context: using slang and pop culture, her goal is to make Plautus popular and funny again. However, since, in her own words, Plautus appears to be a “topical writer”, does a modern adaptation destroy the cultural system of his comedy? To answer this question, we need to understand the metatheatrical nature of his drama. Plautus does not aim at creating a mimetic illusion of reality but rather a playful effect of reality. It means that the cultural elements of his plays are not part of a realistic background: they function as tools in the realisation of the comic performance. In that interpretation, adapting realia can become, rather than a consequence of a dangerous domestication, a legitimate strategy in order to recover, thanks to the translation of topicality, Plautine ludus. Based upon a comparison between Persa and Iran Man, this presentation will question the notions of cultural equivalence and faithfulness. By defending the metatheatrical nature of Plautine drama, especially the ongoing joke with Greek culture, we will show how a change of topicality in modern adaptations can be faithful to Roman comedy.

    After two Master degrees (Translation Studies and Classics), Clara Daniel started a doctorate in Comparative Literature at Aix-Marseille University in 2015. With an interdisciplinary approach, her thesis, Translating the Classic today: Plautus as a case study, deals with the adaptation of Plautus for a mainstream audience, with the example of my French version of Miles gloriosus. She published an article about her strategy in a scientific journal (“Ancient Farce with a Modern Twist”, Anabases, Oct. 2018). She is also interested in the reception of Antiquity in postmodern/pop culture; she wrote two articles about O’brother (by the Coen brothers) based upon Homer.

  • 9:30–10:00

    Beethoven Alvarez (Rio de Janeiro)

    Poetic Translation of Plautus into Brazilian Portuguese

    Abstract and Bio

    For modern readers the theatre of ancient Rome is like a puzzle with many missing pieces or pieces that are very difficult to fit together. Even so, against all odds, some crucial pieces have been preserved: the dramatic texts (only a few in deed). These texts were the theatrical scripts for performances that people in Rome over 2000 years ago, on holidays, watched in wood theatres on the streets. And if, on the one hand, Philology appears as the science that studies these pieces and tries to unravel how to solve the puzzle, on the other hand, Translation Studies proposes to paint a possible sketch of an imaginary puzzle screen, relying many times on what is missing. In this complicated game of creating a new picture, I propose an exercise of reimagining one of these texts. More specifically, in this talk, I intend to present my translation into Brazilian Portuguese, with notes and comments, of the prologue of Poenulus, “The Little Carthaginian”, or as I translate, “O Punicozinho” (“The Little ‘Asshole’ Punic Guy”), by Plauto. My commentaries will focus on discussing the translation into verses within the perspective of the Portuguese poetic tradition and the use of rhyme.

    Beethoven Alvarez is Assistant Professor of Latin Language and Literature at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF, Niterói, Brazil), where he supervises undergraduate and graduate researchs on Classics and Translation Studies. PhD in Linguistics (Unicamp, São Paulo, 2016) and MA in Classics (UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro). Visiting Member (for doctoral research) at the University of Oxford in 2014 (at the Corpus Christi College, with CAPES fellowship). Nowadays he is interested mainly in: Roman comedy, Latin meter, versification, translation studies and literary translation. From August 2019, he will spend some time at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, as an Academic Vistior for post doctoral research.

  • 10:00–10:30

    Eliška Poláčková – Tomáš Weissar (Brno)

    Translating Curculio for Stage

    Abstract and Bio

    The paper is going to present the first Czech translation of Plautus’ Curculio, a co-joint work of students and scholars from Masaryk University, Czech Republic, which arose from collaboration of specialists in Classical Theatre and Classical Philology. The aim was to create a text suitable both for theatrical staging and silent reading. The performative qualities of the translation were tested in a student production premiered in January 2018. Firstly, the Czech tradition of translating Plautus is going to be introduced together with the assessment of their potential translatorial slips and drawbacks. Then, the current project will be presented and several strategies, that the authors used while translating and staging the play, will be illustrated by examples.

    Eliška Poláčková has a position of Assistant Professor at the Department of Theatre Studies, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, and postgraduate position at the Centre of Classical Studies at the Department of Philosophy, CAS. Her research interests comprise Classical, especially Roman Theatre and Drama, Medieval Theatre and Drama, and Theatre Translation. Poláčková received her Ph.D. Degree for the thesis Theatricality of Bohemian Literature of the Fourteenth Century. She co-translated Plautus’ play Curculio, and dramaturged its student production (in collaboration with the Department of Classical Studies, FA MU).

    Tomáš Weissar is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Classical Studies, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University. Above all, he is dealing with Bohemian medieval spiritual poems (he received his master degree for the thesis Poetics of Religious Poems by Dominican Domaslav and His School). During studies he has been a president of a student club for a long time and also a producer of the student theatre society “Titivillus”. He participated in translating Plautus’ play Curculio and directed its subsequent production.

  • 10:30–11:00

    Coffee break

Workshop

  • 11:00–14:00

    Eliška Poláčková (Brno) – Łukasz Berger (Poznań)

    Plautine Workshop: Play Like Plautus

    Room A21 & room G03, Faculty of Arts, building G (Gorkého 7)
    (participants will be divided into two groups)

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    About the workshop

    The general idea of the workshop is to introduce the participants into the stage world of Titus Maccius Plautus and his palliate. The workshop will be divided into three parts: In the first one, extracts from Plautine plays will be discussed with regard to the way they could have been staged in Plautus' time, especially as far as the stage business (gestures, postures, movement) is concerned. In the second part, the participants will be encouraged, through the series of drama group and pair exercises, to activate their bodily perception in order to be able to take part in the third section of the workshop, exercise in staging Plautus.

    Requirements: No acting skills and/or experience is needed. The workshop is supposed to help you grasp the materiality of Plautine performance. What is needed, though, is the readiness to take part in the workshop not only through your brains but also through your bodies.

    Eliška Poláčková has a position of Assistant Professor at the Department of Theatre Studies, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, and postgraduate position at the Centre of Classical Studies at the Department of Philosophy, CAS. Her research interests comprise Classical, especially Roman Theatre and Drama, Medieval Theatre and Drama, and Theatre Translation. Poláčková received her Ph.D. Degree for the thesis Theatricality of Bohemian Literature of the Fourteenth Century. She co-translated Plautus’ play Curculio, and dramaturged its student production (in collaboration with the Department of Classical Studies, FA MU).

    Łukasz Berger earned his doctoral degree in 2015 after defending a thesis on pragmatic aspects of dialogue opening in Plautus. Currently, he is working as an assistant professor in the Classical Department of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland), where he continues his investigation of verbal interaction in Roman comedy. He is also a co-director of students' theatre Sfinga which every year stages its own interpretation of ancient comedies (Plautus, Terence, Aristophanes).

  • 14:00–14:30

    Official closing

    Main Conference venue, room A21, Faculty of Arts (Arna Nováka 1)

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