Ruth Scodel
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780748680108
- eISBN:
- 9780748697007
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748680108.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
Although many studies have applied structuralist narratology to Greek literature, this volume, influenced by ‘new narratologies', seeks to define about Greek narrative practice is universal and what ...
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Although many studies have applied structuralist narratology to Greek literature, this volume, influenced by ‘new narratologies', seeks to define about Greek narrative practice is universal and what is characteristically Greek, and to locate particular Greek narratives and narrative practices within a specific history. A comparative approach, whether to epic, the epistolary novel, historiography, or special devices like the anonymous traveller, reveals both affinities and sharp differences from both the narratives of other ancient cultures and from modern parallels. The generic requirements of history and tragedy, performance occasions, and the high level of self-consciousness produced by the prestige of Homer, rhetorical practice, and the critical tradition all combined to make Greek narrative traditions, in all their diversity, distinctively Greek.Less
Although many studies have applied structuralist narratology to Greek literature, this volume, influenced by ‘new narratologies', seeks to define about Greek narrative practice is universal and what is characteristically Greek, and to locate particular Greek narratives and narrative practices within a specific history. A comparative approach, whether to epic, the epistolary novel, historiography, or special devices like the anonymous traveller, reveals both affinities and sharp differences from both the narratives of other ancient cultures and from modern parallels. The generic requirements of history and tragedy, performance occasions, and the high level of self-consciousness produced by the prestige of Homer, rhetorical practice, and the critical tradition all combined to make Greek narrative traditions, in all their diversity, distinctively Greek.
