Prospettive comiche della metacomunicazione in Plauto: i paradossi di Pseudolo

This paper analyses Plautus’s comic treatment of communicative paradoxes, in the framework of studies on the pragmatics of communication. The slave in the palliata often makes creative use of paradoxes to trap his opponents and subjugate them to his deception. In the specific case of Pseudolus, a comedy recognised for its distinctive self-reflective depth, the seruus callidus furthermore creates a paradoxical device in which the authority and discredit of the given word come into mutual tension within the context of a ritual stipulatio. Here Plautus effectively demonstrates the conditions under which mendacium converges with fides, pointing to the theatre as the space in which the aporia of the truthful liar is neutralised and the logic of the real world can be paradoxically subverted, provided that the message ‘this is a game’ gets across.