Thomas A. Schmitz
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265420
- eISBN:
- 9780191760471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265420.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter looks at Ancient Greek texts as a foil for Ancient Egyptian literature. Scholars who work on cultural products of premodern societies will always be faced with the question whether, by ...
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This chapter looks at Ancient Greek texts as a foil for Ancient Egyptian literature. Scholars who work on cultural products of premodern societies will always be faced with the question whether, by using modern terminology, they are unconsciously importing anachronistic and thus inappropriate concepts into their research. The word ‘literature’ implies literacy, but it is an open question whether the fundamental qualities of writing can reside in texts which have been produced and received as written and read texts. The chapter argues that the awareness of the special quality of literary texts can indeed be found in the earliest Greek texts. It compares the ways in which speaker and addressee are constructed in early oral poetry (such as lyrics and epic) and early written texts (such as epigrams) and argues that there is no clear-cut boundary between the two modes.Less
This chapter looks at Ancient Greek texts as a foil for Ancient Egyptian literature. Scholars who work on cultural products of premodern societies will always be faced with the question whether, by using modern terminology, they are unconsciously importing anachronistic and thus inappropriate concepts into their research. The word ‘literature’ implies literacy, but it is an open question whether the fundamental qualities of writing can reside in texts which have been produced and received as written and read texts. The chapter argues that the awareness of the special quality of literary texts can indeed be found in the earliest Greek texts. It compares the ways in which speaker and addressee are constructed in early oral poetry (such as lyrics and epic) and early written texts (such as epigrams) and argues that there is no clear-cut boundary between the two modes.
Marina Berzins McCoy
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199672783
- eISBN:
- 9780191757327
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199672783.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
The final chapter concludes the book’s argument and summarizes its main theses in an overview. The summary claims that human vulnerability is central to a proper self-understanding of human ...
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The final chapter concludes the book’s argument and summarizes its main theses in an overview. The summary claims that human vulnerability is central to a proper self-understanding of human individuals and the communities in which they live. Vulnerability—understood not only as the capacity to be wounded but also as self-awareness and acceptance of being subject to harm—is not reducible to weakness or the absence of virtue. Instead, the right appropriation of vulnerability proves to be central to genuine self-knowledge and to the exercise of political virtue. The works of philosophy, epic, and tragedy in the previous chapters offer a variety of perspectives both on the nature of vulnerability and the best ways in which to be responsive to its presence in communities. Further, the audience’s encounter with such struggles with vulnerability in performed tragedy, epic, or philosophy invites the political community to witness and so more fully to incorporate the vulnerable into the body politic.Less
The final chapter concludes the book’s argument and summarizes its main theses in an overview. The summary claims that human vulnerability is central to a proper self-understanding of human individuals and the communities in which they live. Vulnerability—understood not only as the capacity to be wounded but also as self-awareness and acceptance of being subject to harm—is not reducible to weakness or the absence of virtue. Instead, the right appropriation of vulnerability proves to be central to genuine self-knowledge and to the exercise of political virtue. The works of philosophy, epic, and tragedy in the previous chapters offer a variety of perspectives both on the nature of vulnerability and the best ways in which to be responsive to its presence in communities. Further, the audience’s encounter with such struggles with vulnerability in performed tragedy, epic, or philosophy invites the political community to witness and so more fully to incorporate the vulnerable into the body politic.
