Reinvention in Terence’s Eunuchus

Abstract

The Eunuchus thematizes the problem of not being first and offers a distinctive solution. In the prologue, Terence laments his position as a latecomer to comedy and complains that there is nothing new to say. Characters within the play resent being typecast and fated to repeat the same old part. But through reinvention, these characters alter their standing, asserting both their autonomy and individuality. In the same way, Terence will insist on his agency as a playwright to blend and manipulate familiar comic conventions in order to create something new. What gets called contaminatio is a solution, not a problem.

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