Laughter as thaumaston agent in the ancient theater

Abstract

The marvelous (thaumaston) was discussed by Aristotle in Poetics, and in this work it is associated with the epic genre and tragedy, with specific characteristics in each of them, but this category is not mentioned in relation to comedy. But in this article we intend to reveal some examples that contradict this, artistic and theoretical, showing that the ironic metalanguage and metateatro, fundamental for a further notion of what constitutes the fictional game – including there the presence of the marvelous –, are already operated by laughter in comic stages of Antiquity. Through references to works of ancient theater that can still be read, or the themes of others that have not reached our days, as well as the analysis of some passages from the philosophical and aesthetic writings of Plato and Aristotle, we seek to understand this possible presence of the marvelous made possible by laughter and humor, perhaps indicating future paths of analysis. In this respect, it is also important for us to refer to a specific theoretical work, in fact, the summary of a possible previous class or writing, now lost, today called Tractatus coislinianus, which offers – or at least suggests – a theoretical possibility of this.