Plaute et son temps
Institution:
Aix-Marseille 1Disciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
Appropriate to the needs of the times, plautus' theatre remains enigmatic in its protest, presented under the guise of comedy, against the conservative and militaristic values of the roma aeterna and of the mos maiorum. What was the nature of plautus' relations with the city whose adoptive resident - short of its actual "citizen" - he at the very least became ? his work gives many indications of a gradual adjustment, not devoid of ambiguity, in connection with the vrbs, which was still going through decisive changes between 220 and 184 b. C. (date of plautus' death). Public entertainer during the days of the ludi, plautus in his plays, under cover of their greek conventions, adumbrates the social, moral, economic, religious and even political realities and the psychological and cultural changes of roman life. By relieving anxiety through laughter at the sight of the saturnalian reversal of values, he somehow indulges some of his own frustrations : he did not become, like ennius, a roman citizen ; to this umbrian whose country was subjugated, then "deculturated" by rome shortly before his birth, to this marginalised poet, fighting shy of all patronage, brought low in the midst of a conflicting society - assimilative, emancipatory, but xenophobic and "totalitarian", nothing is ever spontaneously granted, everything must be hard
Abstract FR:
Approprie aux besoins du temps, le theatre de plaute demeure enigmatique par sa contestation, operee sous le couvert du comique, des valeurs conservatrices et militaristes de la roma aeterna et du mos maiorum. Quelles furent les relations de plaute avec la cite dont il devint sinon le citoyen, du moins un citadin d'adoption ? son oeuvre offre maints indices d'une acclimatation progressive, non depourvue d'ambiguite, par rapport a l'vrbs, laquelle connait elle-meme de decisives mutations entre 220 et 184 av. J. C. (date de la mort de plaute). Amuseur des foules aux jours des ludi, plaute suggere dans ses pieces, derriere leurs conventions grecques, les realites (sociales, morales, economiques, religieuses, voire politiques) et les changements psychologiques et culturels de rome. En declenchant un rire liberateur d'angoisse a la vue du renversement saturnalien des valeurs, il satisfait obscurement en lui des frustrations : il n'est pas devenu, comme ennius, citoyen romain ; a cet ombrien dont la patrie fut assujettie puis deculturee par rome peu avant sa naissance, a ce poete marginalise, retif a tout patronage des grands, declasse au sein d'une societe contradictoire (assimilatrice, emancipatrice, mais xenophobe et "totalitaire") , rien n'est spontanement donne, tout est, durement, a conquerir. Proche d'une plebe romaine a laquelle tout le lie, il se fait prudemment l'echo des aversions et des engouements de cette classe.