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Terence's Offstage Virgo: The (De)construction of a Stock Character

Pohler, Allie
http://orcid.org/0009-0007-7130-7295
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1712911357303187

Abstract Details

2024, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Classics.
This dissertation offers the first focused scholarly analysis of the understudied and, as I demonstrate, misunderstood virgo stock character of republican era fabulae palliatae. The generic plot structures of Roman Comedy consistently circulate around a young man’s desire to possess this virgo, the revelation of her true status, and the securing of her socially desirable marriage to a citizen man. In the works of the playwright Publius Terentius Afer (also known as Terence), the virgo is nearly always an offstage character—she is named and central to the plot, but almost never appears or speaks for herself. Because she is absent, I argue, the audience’s view of the virgo is necessarily indirect, accumulative, and contradictory, shaped by the perceptions, motives, and experiences of the onstage characters who describe her and attempt to control her future. Although scholarship on these plays typically treats the lovesick young man as the genre’s protagonist, my approach decenters the adulescens and reveals instead the extent of the physical and emotional suffering that he inflicts upon the virgo, such that any testimony that he provides about the mutuality of their affection is inherently untrustworthy (Chapter 1). I therefore focus on the speech, characterization, and identities of the plays’ onstage women (matronae and ancillae), applying feminist standpoint theory to demonstrate how the epistemic advantage of their intersectional, marginalized identities positions them to recognize the complex social risks that citizen girls must navigate and to assess and reject the young man’s abusive behaviors (Chapters 2 and 3). Through female characters across social classes, I conclude, Terence frames the citizen girl’s marriage not as a happy ending but as a pragmatic survival response to rape (Conclusion); the result is a serious indictment of Roman citizen values concerning marriage and girls.
Caitlin Hines, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Anna Conser, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Kelly Shannon-Henderson, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
THM Gellar-Goad, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
200 p.
Classical Studies
Terence; virgo; Roman Comedy; feminist standpoint theory; marginalization; ancilla

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Pohler, A. (2024). Terence's Offstage Virgo: The (De)construction of a Stock Character [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1712911357303187

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Pohler, Allie. Terence's Offstage Virgo: The (De)construction of a Stock Character. 2024. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1712911357303187.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Pohler, Allie. "Terence's Offstage Virgo: The (De)construction of a Stock Character." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2024. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1712911357303187

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2024, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.