Roland Enmarch and Verena M. Lepper (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265420
- eISBN:
- 9780191760471
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265420.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book reviews the numerous developments in the theoretical framework of interpretation that have taken place over recent years. The application of more theoretically informed approaches to the ...
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This book reviews the numerous developments in the theoretical framework of interpretation that have taken place over recent years. The application of more theoretically informed approaches to the ancient literary corpus, and a more detailed analysis of context, form, and reception, have fundamentally challenged the interpretative paradigms that formerly held sway. No consensus on interpretative stance has yet emerged, and in this volume many of the foremost researchers in the field examine the overall state of work on the subject. The chapters in the present volume are intended to contribute to this development of different approaches in their application to real Egyptian texts. No single overarching theoretical framework underlies these contributions; instead they represent a multiplicity of perspectives. The range of chapters includes textual criticism; literary criticism; the social role of literature; reception theory; and the treatment of newly discovered literary texts. All contributions centre on the problems and potentials of studying Egyptian literature in a theoretically informed manner. Although major difficulties remain in interpreting a literature preserved only fragmentarily, this volume demonstrates the ongoing vitality of current Egyptological approaches to this problem. This volume also incorporates a broader cross-cultural and comparative element, providing overviews of connections and discontinuities with biblical, Classical, and Mesopotamian literatures, in order to address the comparative contexts of Ancient Egyptian literature.Less
This book reviews the numerous developments in the theoretical framework of interpretation that have taken place over recent years. The application of more theoretically informed approaches to the ancient literary corpus, and a more detailed analysis of context, form, and reception, have fundamentally challenged the interpretative paradigms that formerly held sway. No consensus on interpretative stance has yet emerged, and in this volume many of the foremost researchers in the field examine the overall state of work on the subject. The chapters in the present volume are intended to contribute to this development of different approaches in their application to real Egyptian texts. No single overarching theoretical framework underlies these contributions; instead they represent a multiplicity of perspectives. The range of chapters includes textual criticism; literary criticism; the social role of literature; reception theory; and the treatment of newly discovered literary texts. All contributions centre on the problems and potentials of studying Egyptian literature in a theoretically informed manner. Although major difficulties remain in interpreting a literature preserved only fragmentarily, this volume demonstrates the ongoing vitality of current Egyptological approaches to this problem. This volume also incorporates a broader cross-cultural and comparative element, providing overviews of connections and discontinuities with biblical, Classical, and Mesopotamian literatures, in order to address the comparative contexts of Ancient Egyptian literature.
Tom Shippey
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781781382615
- eISBN:
- 9781786945167
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781382615.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter begins by giving examples of the hostility shown by many literary critics to the whole genre of science fiction. Several reasons for this are discussed, and the test case proposed is the ...
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This chapter begins by giving examples of the hostility shown by many literary critics to the whole genre of science fiction. Several reasons for this are discussed, and the test case proposed is the early work by H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr Moreau. Moreau, it is noted, deliberately and forcefully rejects the authority of respected traditions, including Classical literature, the Latin language itself, and going on to oppose Darwinian theory to the authority of the Bible, in a way which was seen immediately as blasphemous. The novel describes several struggles for authority, against literary tradition and religious belief, against nineteenth-century imperial values, while finally asserting above all the authority of science, which overrides any consideration of the relativity of cultural values.Less
This chapter begins by giving examples of the hostility shown by many literary critics to the whole genre of science fiction. Several reasons for this are discussed, and the test case proposed is the early work by H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr Moreau. Moreau, it is noted, deliberately and forcefully rejects the authority of respected traditions, including Classical literature, the Latin language itself, and going on to oppose Darwinian theory to the authority of the Bible, in a way which was seen immediately as blasphemous. The novel describes several struggles for authority, against literary tradition and religious belief, against nineteenth-century imperial values, while finally asserting above all the authority of science, which overrides any consideration of the relativity of cultural values.
Andrew Faulkner
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199589036
- eISBN:
- 9780191728983
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199589036.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter considers the evidence for the transmission and reception of the Homeric Hymns from the seventh to the third centuries BC. It is argued that a collection of Homeric Hymns of some sort ...
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This chapter considers the evidence for the transmission and reception of the Homeric Hymns from the seventh to the third centuries BC. It is argued that a collection of Homeric Hymns of some sort probably existed by the early Hellenistic period. While by no means as popular as the Homeric epics, the Homeric Hymns were widely known by the third century BC. Indications of knowledge of the Hymns in surviving Classical and Archaic literature are also considered in detail.Less
This chapter considers the evidence for the transmission and reception of the Homeric Hymns from the seventh to the third centuries BC. It is argued that a collection of Homeric Hymns of some sort probably existed by the early Hellenistic period. While by no means as popular as the Homeric epics, the Homeric Hymns were widely known by the third century BC. Indications of knowledge of the Hymns in surviving Classical and Archaic literature are also considered in detail.
Andrew Hui
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823273355
- eISBN:
- 9780823273393
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823273355.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter traces the genealogy of the immortality of poetry topos from antiquity to the sixteenth century. It argues that the Renaissance poetics of ruins’s yearning for timelessness is ...
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This chapter traces the genealogy of the immortality of poetry topos from antiquity to the sixteenth century. It argues that the Renaissance poetics of ruins’s yearning for timelessness is accomplished through the strategy of a temporal multiplicity, a process that transmutes the past and in turn open its own transformation, from author to author, reader to reader. In other words, Renaissance poetry, implicitly or explicitly, hopes to transcend its temporal and spatial horizons (aspiring to be a monument), yet finds its survival in the immanent world, by being recycled, cited, and transformed by successors (living as a ruin). This tension—to be within or without time—drives much of the discourse surrounding ruins. Architectural destruction always compels poets to create works that rise above the sublunary world, while at the same time it inevitably leads them back into the thickets of exchange and mediation. The chapter ends with close-reading of several sonnets of Shakespeare.Less
This chapter traces the genealogy of the immortality of poetry topos from antiquity to the sixteenth century. It argues that the Renaissance poetics of ruins’s yearning for timelessness is accomplished through the strategy of a temporal multiplicity, a process that transmutes the past and in turn open its own transformation, from author to author, reader to reader. In other words, Renaissance poetry, implicitly or explicitly, hopes to transcend its temporal and spatial horizons (aspiring to be a monument), yet finds its survival in the immanent world, by being recycled, cited, and transformed by successors (living as a ruin). This tension—to be within or without time—drives much of the discourse surrounding ruins. Architectural destruction always compels poets to create works that rise above the sublunary world, while at the same time it inevitably leads them back into the thickets of exchange and mediation. The chapter ends with close-reading of several sonnets of Shakespeare.
