CLASSICS RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM DATE: Thursday, 20 July 2017 TIME: 14:10 - 15:45 VENUE: Committee Room, Classics Department, Room GO 12A, Ground Floor, MTB, Howard College Campus SPEAKER: Liliana Carrick-Tapeiner (Classics,Unisa) TOPIC: Women on Top: A Bakhtinian reading of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata ABSTRACT: Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, first performed in Athens in 411 BC, is a deeply engaging and bawdy text in which women of unusual agency from Athens and Sparta conspire together under the leadership of the eponymous heroine to bring an end to the protracted and devastating Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). In their attempt to achieve peace the women, to comic affect, are seen encroaching upon specifically male dominated spheres of control which is discernable in their two separate schemes: a sex strike (in which the women dictate sexual relations) and the seizure of the acropolis and the treasury (which sees the women taking on militaristic characteristics). Among other factors, the play is particularly interesting in its depiction of a topsy-turvy world of fantasy and absurdity, a feature not uncommon in other works of this comic playwright, and as a result lends itself well to a carnivalized reading in the Bakhtinian sense. This paper will thus explore the features of Bakhtin’s carnival present in Lysistrata by focusing on the suspension or inversion of the hierarchical structures of gender in which temporary elevation of women and debasement of the men will be explored. ALL STAFF AND GRADUATE STUDENTS ARE WELCOME! For further information please contact: Dr Elke Steinmeyer Classics Programme University of KwaZulu-Natal 4041 Durban South Africa Tel: +27 31 260 1306 Fax: +27 31 260 7286 Email: steinmeyere1@ukzn.ac.za