ABSTRACT
Drawing on research in the field of cognitive science which has shown that ‘thinking’ is not detached from emotion, this chapter considers the audience’s engagement with the comic world, taking into account the wider festive and uplifting environment of the performance. It argues that the presence of positive emotions and laughter triggered by Aristophanes’ visual and verbal humour as well as the various celebratory elements of the festive comic performance (music, dance, song) would have enhanced the spectators’ creative engagement with the play and the broader performance environment. Cognitive scientists (e.g. A. Isen, B. Fredrickson) have linked positive affect with an increased capacity for creativity, integration of diverse information, broadening of attention and novel thinking. When one is feeling happy, for example, one has full access to all mental faculties and is able to make broad connections between cognitive material which may have been stored at different times via different methods. This is particularly interesting when considering the distinctive style of Aristophanes who borrows from a diverse range of sources (e.g. tragedy) in order to create a world of possibility and connections. Such active audience engagement is in tune with the ‘openness’ of Aristophanic comedy and reflective of the participatory nature of Athenian democracy.
