Litovskaya A. . Aristophanes' comedy as open form and formation of European comic tradition

The thesis is the first attempt in the national literary criticism to con-sider Aristophanes' comedy in the context of concepts of open form. It is stated that originality of dramatic conflict, plot construction and selection of composition means in Aristophanes' comedies are defined by embodiment of open form of dramatic construction principles. This thesis proposes to treat comedy of Aristophanes and Menander as initial stages of two tradi-tions in the history of European comedy, which are determined by reference to open and closed forms. Further development of understanding the inter-connection of Aristophanes' comedies and folk culture of laughter was obtained. The regularity of comedy playwrights' resort to the open-form artistic means in the turning stages of formation of the European theatre is observed. It is shown that the role of the Aristophanes' creative work in the development of European comic tradition is defined by embodiment of open form principles in his comedies.