| Epic, Novel and the Progress of Antiquity Contributor(s): Kahane, Ahuvia (Author) |
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ISBN: 0715636774 ISBN-13: 9780715636770 Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic OUR PRICE: $85.50 Product Type: Hardcover Published: February 2025 This item may be ordered no more than 25 days prior to its publication date of February 6, 2025Annotation: This book rethinks the characterization of two highly contrastive forms of ancient literary tradition ??? epic and novel ??? and re-frames their function as dynamic points of reference in the history of ideas and in our understanding of the interface between antiquity and the modern. Epic and novel have often been construed in terms of sharp contrasts: temporally, with the epic anchored in the canonical beginnings of classical literature, as opposed to the novel, which rises only late in the ancient era; hierarchically, with epic regularly occupying the canonical core while the novel often resided in the periphery; and in terms of specific highly contrasting attributes: ???sublime??? vs. ???subversive???; an aspiration to ???oral??? song vs. an intimate association with book culture; heroic vs. ???anti-heroic??? or ???mock-heroic???.Ahuvia Kahane here argues for the fallibility of each of several major differential attributes, to the point of generic disintegration. He then sets out toconstruct a new understanding of epic and novel in antiquity as part of a more fragile, dynamic framework, governed by intertextuality and openness on the one hand, and by fragmented interpretive traditions on the other. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Ancient And Classical - History |
| Dewey: 880.09 |
| Physical Information: 240 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book rethinks the characterization of two highly contrastive forms of ancient literary tradition - epic and novel - and re-frames their function as dynamic points of reference in the history of ideas and in our understanding of the interface between antiquity and the modern. Epic and novel have often been construed in terms of sharp contrasts: temporally, with the epic anchored in the canonical beginnings of classical literature, as opposed to the novel, which rises only late in the ancient era; hierarchically, with epic regularly occupying the canonical core while the novel often resided in the periphery; and in terms of specific highly contrasting attributes: 'sublime' vs. 'subversive'; an aspiration to 'oral' song vs. an intimate association with book culture; heroic vs. 'anti-heroic' or 'mock-heroic'. Ahuvia Kahane here argues for the fallibility of each of several major differential attributes, to the point of generic disintegration. He then constructs a new understanding of epic and novel in antiquity as part of a more fragile, dynamic framework, governed by intertextuality and openness on the one hand, and by fragmented interpretive traditions on the other. |
Contributor Bio(s): Braund, Susanna: - Susanna Morton Braund is Professor of Latin Poetry and Its Reception at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. She has published extensively on Roman satire, Latin epic poetry and Seneca, including for Bloomsbury The Roman Satirists and Their Masks (1998). |