The Poet's Voice: Essays on Poetics and Greek Literature - Softcover

Goldhill, Simon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521395704 ISBN 13: 9780521395700

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1990

Synopsis

"The object of this book," writes the author in his Preface, "is to investigate how poetry and the figure of the poet are represented, discussed, contested within the poetry of ancient Greece." Dr. Goldhill seeks to discover how ancient authors broached the questions: From what position does a poet speak? With what authority? With what debts to the past? With what involvement in the present? Through a series of interrelated essays on Homer, lyric poetry, Aristophanes, Theocritus and Apollonius of Rhodes, key aspects in the history of poetics are discussed: tale telling and the representation of man as the user of language; memorial and praise; parody, comedy and carnival; irony, masks and desire; the legacy of the past and the idea of influence. Detailed readings of major works of Greek literature show how richly rewarding and revealing this approach can be. The author makes liberal use of critical writings from areas of study other than Classics and focuses on problems central to contemporary critical debate. His book is uniquely placed to bring together modern and ancient poetics in a way that is enlightening for both. The work is written as much for the serious scholar of literary criticism as for the Classicist.

About this title

Book Description:

Key aspects in the history of poetics are discussed through a series of interrelated essays on Homer, lyric poetry, Aristophanes, Theocritus and Apollonius of Rhodes. This work is written for the serious scholar of literary criticism as well as the Classicist.

About the Author:

Simon Goldhill is Professor of Greek, University of Cambridge; John Harvard Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Cambridge; Director of the Cambridge Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities; Fellow of King's College, Cambridge; and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His internationally award-winning books include Jerusalem, City of Longing (2008), Victorian Culture and Classical Antiquity (2011) and Sophocles and the Language of Tragedy (2012).

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0521395704
• ISBN 13: 9780521395700
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384