The nuances of humor in Plato and Aristotle and their projection in the Aristophanic comedy

Abstract

Plato and Aristotle differentiate between and aggressive humor and a moderate one. In particular, Aristotle in his Poetics distinguishes the nuances of the comic in different literary genres: on the one hand, he identifies the hostile humor, present in the iamb and the old comedy; on the other hand, the moderate humor of the middle or new comedy. But the two forms of the comic that delimit Aristotle not only differentiate old and middle comedy, but are two forms of humor present in Aristophanes. In the early work of the author, the comic hero usually receives tempered humor, while the antagonist is usually the target of a hostile one. From our point of view, Aristophanes manipulates in his early comedy the nuances of humor to guide the interpretation of his spectators and favor the posture propitiated by the hero.