Comic Democracies: From Ancient Athens to the American Republic

In Comic Democracies, Fletcher offers a sweeping account of the comic form and its potential affinities with democracy. He argues that we ought to view democracy not as the best system of government for promoting the principles of justice, equality, and liberty but as the one with the kind of pluralism, pragmatism, and empiricism that make it a more sensible and effective form of government than its alternatives. Having set out this account of democracy in the introduction, Fletcher proceeds to offer a broad series of case studies illustrating the ability of various comic forms to promote such democratic sensibilities. Starting in classical Athens with the comedies of Aristophanes, Fletcher argues that plays like the Lysistrata and Frogs “model an instrumental pluralism” and illustrate a “pragmatic logic” that can serve as resources for promoting democratic sensibilities (23, 24). The remaining chapters proceed in a similar fashion, demonstrating how comic...