Candida Moss
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199739875
- eISBN:
- 9780199777259
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199739875.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Early Christian Studies
This book uses the martyrs’ imitation of Jesus in the acts of the martyrs as a window into the history of ideas. It argues, first, that the presentations of the deaths of the martyrs are modeled on ...
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This book uses the martyrs’ imitation of Jesus in the acts of the martyrs as a window into the history of ideas. It argues, first, that the presentations of the deaths of the martyrs are modeled on portrayals of the death of Jesus in early Christian literature and practice. Given that the martyrs are presented as Christ figures, they serve as narrative reinterpretations of the death of Jesus and can serve as valuable, early sources for the reception history of the New Testament. It also argues that the assimilation of the martyrs to Christ goes further than the narrative contours and stylistic features of their deaths. In the depiction of the salvific value of the martyr’s death, the postmortem functions of martyrs in heaven, and the martyrs’ status vis-à-vis Christ in the afterlife, the martyrs continue to be presented as Christly figures. As a result, the martyr acts can also contribute to our understanding of the development of ideas about Jesus (Christology) and the way in which human beings are saved (soteriology) in the early church in the pre-Constantinian period.Less
This book uses the martyrs’ imitation of Jesus in the acts of the martyrs as a window into the history of ideas. It argues, first, that the presentations of the deaths of the martyrs are modeled on portrayals of the death of Jesus in early Christian literature and practice. Given that the martyrs are presented as Christ figures, they serve as narrative reinterpretations of the death of Jesus and can serve as valuable, early sources for the reception history of the New Testament. It also argues that the assimilation of the martyrs to Christ goes further than the narrative contours and stylistic features of their deaths. In the depiction of the salvific value of the martyr’s death, the postmortem functions of martyrs in heaven, and the martyrs’ status vis-à-vis Christ in the afterlife, the martyrs continue to be presented as Christly figures. As a result, the martyr acts can also contribute to our understanding of the development of ideas about Jesus (Christology) and the way in which human beings are saved (soteriology) in the early church in the pre-Constantinian period.
Isobel Hurst
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199283514
- eISBN:
- 9780191712715
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199283514.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book brings together two lines of enquiry in recent criticism: the reception of ancient Greece and Rome, and women as writers and readers in the 19th century. A classical education has been ...
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This book brings together two lines of enquiry in recent criticism: the reception of ancient Greece and Rome, and women as writers and readers in the 19th century. A classical education has been characterized as almost an exclusively male prerogative, but women writers had a greater imaginative engagement with classical literature than has previously been acknowledged. To offer a more accurate impression of the influence of the classics in Victorian women's literary culture, women's difficulties in gaining access to classical learning are explored through biographical and fictional representations of the development of women's education from solitary study at home to compulsory classics at university. The restrictions which applied to women's classical learning liberated them from the repressive and sometimes alienating effects of a traditional classical education, enabling women writers to produce distinctive literary responses to the classical tradition. Women readers focused on image, plot, and character rather than grammar, leading to imaginative and often subversive reworkings of classical texts. Elizabeth Barrett Browning and George Eliot have been granted an exceptional status as 19th-century female classicists. This book places them in a literary tradition in which revising classical narratives in forms such as the novel and the dramatic monologue offered women the opportunity to express controversial ideas. The reworking of classical texts serves a variety of purposes: to validate women's claims to authorship, to demand access to education, to highlight feminist issues through the heroines of ancient tragedy, and to repudiate the warrior ethos of ancient epic.Less
This book brings together two lines of enquiry in recent criticism: the reception of ancient Greece and Rome, and women as writers and readers in the 19th century. A classical education has been characterized as almost an exclusively male prerogative, but women writers had a greater imaginative engagement with classical literature than has previously been acknowledged. To offer a more accurate impression of the influence of the classics in Victorian women's literary culture, women's difficulties in gaining access to classical learning are explored through biographical and fictional representations of the development of women's education from solitary study at home to compulsory classics at university. The restrictions which applied to women's classical learning liberated them from the repressive and sometimes alienating effects of a traditional classical education, enabling women writers to produce distinctive literary responses to the classical tradition. Women readers focused on image, plot, and character rather than grammar, leading to imaginative and often subversive reworkings of classical texts. Elizabeth Barrett Browning and George Eliot have been granted an exceptional status as 19th-century female classicists. This book places them in a literary tradition in which revising classical narratives in forms such as the novel and the dramatic monologue offered women the opportunity to express controversial ideas. The reworking of classical texts serves a variety of purposes: to validate women's claims to authorship, to demand access to education, to highlight feminist issues through the heroines of ancient tragedy, and to repudiate the warrior ethos of ancient epic.
Scott McGill
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195175646
- eISBN:
- 9780199789337
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195175646.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book has sought to cast light upon the ancient Virgilian centos, texts that have met with limited critical attention, particularly in the Anglophone world. While always remaining cognizant of ...
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This book has sought to cast light upon the ancient Virgilian centos, texts that have met with limited critical attention, particularly in the Anglophone world. While always remaining cognizant of the centos' strangeness, which indeed is a sine qua non of interpreting them, the study has taken them seriously as legitimate objects of critical inquiry. Primary among the historical and literary topics examined in the book is allusion. The aim has been to explore how one can read the allusiveness of the individual centos, and in the process to investigate broader issues in the field of allusion studies.Less
This book has sought to cast light upon the ancient Virgilian centos, texts that have met with limited critical attention, particularly in the Anglophone world. While always remaining cognizant of the centos' strangeness, which indeed is a sine qua non of interpreting them, the study has taken them seriously as legitimate objects of critical inquiry. Primary among the historical and literary topics examined in the book is allusion. The aim has been to explore how one can read the allusiveness of the individual centos, and in the process to investigate broader issues in the field of allusion studies.
Matthew Fox
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199211920
- eISBN:
- 9780191705854
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199211920.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
Cicero has long been seen to embody the values of the Roman Republic. This study of Cicero's use of history reveals that rather than promoting his own values, Cicero uses historical representation to ...
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Cicero has long been seen to embody the values of the Roman Republic. This study of Cicero's use of history reveals that rather than promoting his own values, Cicero uses historical representation to explore the difficulties of finding any ideological coherence in Rome's political or cultural traditions. The book looks to the scepticism of Cicero's philosophical education for an understanding of his perspective on Rome's history, and argues that neglect of the sceptical tradition has transformed the doubting, ambiguous Cicero into the confident proponent of a form of Roman identity formed in his own image. The close reading of a range of his theoretical works make up much of the book: De republica, De oratore, Brutus, and De divinatione are treated in detail, and a range of other works are also discussed. The book explores Cicero's ironic attitude towards Roman history, and connects it to the use of irony in mainstream Latin historians, in particular Sallust and Tacitus. It also examines Cicero's approach to the history of rhetoric at Rome. The book concludes with a study of a little-read treatise on Cicero from the early 18th century, by the radical thinker John Toland, which sheds new light on the history of Cicero's reception. Cicero's use of history shows the flexibility of his understanding of Roman identity. The book argues against the image of Cicero as a writer hoping to coerce his readers into identifying himself and his own achievements with the dominant ideologies of Rome.Less
Cicero has long been seen to embody the values of the Roman Republic. This study of Cicero's use of history reveals that rather than promoting his own values, Cicero uses historical representation to explore the difficulties of finding any ideological coherence in Rome's political or cultural traditions. The book looks to the scepticism of Cicero's philosophical education for an understanding of his perspective on Rome's history, and argues that neglect of the sceptical tradition has transformed the doubting, ambiguous Cicero into the confident proponent of a form of Roman identity formed in his own image. The close reading of a range of his theoretical works make up much of the book: De republica, De oratore, Brutus, and De divinatione are treated in detail, and a range of other works are also discussed. The book explores Cicero's ironic attitude towards Roman history, and connects it to the use of irony in mainstream Latin historians, in particular Sallust and Tacitus. It also examines Cicero's approach to the history of rhetoric at Rome. The book concludes with a study of a little-read treatise on Cicero from the early 18th century, by the radical thinker John Toland, which sheds new light on the history of Cicero's reception. Cicero's use of history shows the flexibility of his understanding of Roman identity. The book argues against the image of Cicero as a writer hoping to coerce his readers into identifying himself and his own achievements with the dominant ideologies of Rome.
Scott McGill
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195175646
- eISBN:
- 9780199789337
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195175646.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The Virgilian centos, in which authors reconnect discrete lines taken from Virgil's Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid to create new poems, are some of the most striking texts to survive from antiquity. ...
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The Virgilian centos, in which authors reconnect discrete lines taken from Virgil's Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid to create new poems, are some of the most striking texts to survive from antiquity. This book examines the twelve mythological and secular examples, which probably date from c.200-c.530. While verbal games, the centos deserve to be taken seriously for what they disclose about Virgil's reception, late-antique literary culture, and other important historical and theoretical topics in literary criticism. As radically intertextual works, the centos are particularly valuable sites for investigating topics in allusion studies: when can and should audiences read texts allusively? What is the role of the author and the reader in creating allusions? How does one determine the functions of allusions? This book explores these and other questions, and in the process comes into dialogue with major critical issues.Less
The Virgilian centos, in which authors reconnect discrete lines taken from Virgil's Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid to create new poems, are some of the most striking texts to survive from antiquity. This book examines the twelve mythological and secular examples, which probably date from c.200-c.530. While verbal games, the centos deserve to be taken seriously for what they disclose about Virgil's reception, late-antique literary culture, and other important historical and theoretical topics in literary criticism. As radically intertextual works, the centos are particularly valuable sites for investigating topics in allusion studies: when can and should audiences read texts allusively? What is the role of the author and the reader in creating allusions? How does one determine the functions of allusions? This book explores these and other questions, and in the process comes into dialogue with major critical issues.
Charles Martindale
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199240401
- eISBN:
- 9780191714337
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199240401.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The aim of this book is to encourage an interest in the tradition of modern Western aesthetics as it applies to poetry and the arts. It argues that the study of literature today is unduly dominated ...
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The aim of this book is to encourage an interest in the tradition of modern Western aesthetics as it applies to poetry and the arts. It argues that the study of literature today is unduly dominated by ideology critique, and that there is a need for a new recognition of the importance of beauty and the aesthetic in our response to the arts. It explores ways in which Kant’s aesthetic theory, as set out in the Critique of Judgement, still provides powerful tools of analysis for the modern critic. For example, the Kantian aesthetic — the free judgement of taste — carries a rebuke to the means/end rationality that is so widespread and so dangerous in the contemporary West. It shows that the Kantian ‘judgement of taste’ is a judgement of form and content together, and is thus not a version of formalism. It explores the relationship between politics and aesthetics in the responses to the arts, arguing that aesthetic judgements are not simply disguised judgements of other kinds. Finally, it urges on those writing about literature the value of aesthetic criticism — the attempt to isolate the unique aesthetic quality of artworks — as pioneered by Walter Pater, offering three essays on Latin poets as examples of what might be done.Less
The aim of this book is to encourage an interest in the tradition of modern Western aesthetics as it applies to poetry and the arts. It argues that the study of literature today is unduly dominated by ideology critique, and that there is a need for a new recognition of the importance of beauty and the aesthetic in our response to the arts. It explores ways in which Kant’s aesthetic theory, as set out in the Critique of Judgement, still provides powerful tools of analysis for the modern critic. For example, the Kantian aesthetic — the free judgement of taste — carries a rebuke to the means/end rationality that is so widespread and so dangerous in the contemporary West. It shows that the Kantian ‘judgement of taste’ is a judgement of form and content together, and is thus not a version of formalism. It explores the relationship between politics and aesthetics in the responses to the arts, arguing that aesthetic judgements are not simply disguised judgements of other kinds. Finally, it urges on those writing about literature the value of aesthetic criticism — the attempt to isolate the unique aesthetic quality of artworks — as pioneered by Walter Pater, offering three essays on Latin poets as examples of what might be done.
Roland Enmarch
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264331
- eISBN:
- 9780191734106
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264331.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
This book presents a commentary on and an analysis of P. Leiden I 344 recto, which contains the poem variously called The Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All or The Admonitions (Mahnworte), from ...
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This book presents a commentary on and an analysis of P. Leiden I 344 recto, which contains the poem variously called The Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All or The Admonitions (Mahnworte), from the Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt. The first part of the book comprises an analysis of several literary aspects of the poem, including its unity, compositional date, reception, possible setting, genre, literary style and meaning. It also offers a literary reading of the poem within the context of the cultural and intellectual milieu that produced it. The second part of the book provides a detailed translation, commentary to, and literary reading of, the poem, subdivided into sections that largely follow the divisions within the manuscript. A metrical transliteration is given, broadly following the prosodic principles of Gerhard Fecht, which provide a pragmatic formal mode of analysis. The degree to which these are relevant to the compositional structure of the poem is discussed.Less
This book presents a commentary on and an analysis of P. Leiden I 344 recto, which contains the poem variously called The Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All or The Admonitions (Mahnworte), from the Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt. The first part of the book comprises an analysis of several literary aspects of the poem, including its unity, compositional date, reception, possible setting, genre, literary style and meaning. It also offers a literary reading of the poem within the context of the cultural and intellectual milieu that produced it. The second part of the book provides a detailed translation, commentary to, and literary reading of, the poem, subdivided into sections that largely follow the divisions within the manuscript. A metrical transliteration is given, broadly following the prosodic principles of Gerhard Fecht, which provide a pragmatic formal mode of analysis. The degree to which these are relevant to the compositional structure of the poem is discussed.
David Cunning
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195399608
- eISBN:
- 9780199866502
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195399608.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Descartes’ Meditations is a search after truth in the sense that it contains arguments for a view about the ultimate nature of reality, but it is also a search after truth in that it captures the ...
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Descartes’ Meditations is a search after truth in the sense that it contains arguments for a view about the ultimate nature of reality, but it is also a search after truth in that it captures the difficult and error-ridden struggle of a thinker (the meditator) who is moving from an extremely confused representation of reality to a view that is accurate but unexpected. Every single claim of the Meditations is advanced from the first-person point of view of Descartes’ struggling meditator, and so most of the Meditations is confused. At the start of inquiry, and as inquiry unfolds, the meditator will put forward claims that he takes to be true, but in most cases these claims do not have anything going for them but their longevity, and they are to be rejected. For example, the meditator will put forward claims about what is possible, but without having arrived at clear and obvious axioms (the primary notions of metaphysics) that entail that God is the author of what is possible, and without having considered which possibilities God has or has not authored. The meditator will get clear about some of these axioms as inquiry unfolds, and as a result he will recognize many of the claims that he put forward initially as confused and provincial, though he will continue to assert any confusions that are not emended. The Meditations does not draw out all of the implications of the primary notions of metaphysics; at the end of the Meditations the meditator is not a full-blown Cartesian, and a number of Cartesian theses (e.g., necessitarianism) are generated only with further reflection. Finally, the Meditations is written for reception by a variety of minds, so that readers from a number of backgrounds and confusions would be able to start from their first-person epistemic position and move in the direction of truth. Descartes is of course interested in locating ideas that are an accurate representation of reality, but he is also interested in pedagogy and the rhetoric of inquiry, or else communication would be for nought. He employs the analytic method to help his readers to move from and beyond a faulty paradigm.Less
Descartes’ Meditations is a search after truth in the sense that it contains arguments for a view about the ultimate nature of reality, but it is also a search after truth in that it captures the difficult and error-ridden struggle of a thinker (the meditator) who is moving from an extremely confused representation of reality to a view that is accurate but unexpected. Every single claim of the Meditations is advanced from the first-person point of view of Descartes’ struggling meditator, and so most of the Meditations is confused. At the start of inquiry, and as inquiry unfolds, the meditator will put forward claims that he takes to be true, but in most cases these claims do not have anything going for them but their longevity, and they are to be rejected. For example, the meditator will put forward claims about what is possible, but without having arrived at clear and obvious axioms (the primary notions of metaphysics) that entail that God is the author of what is possible, and without having considered which possibilities God has or has not authored. The meditator will get clear about some of these axioms as inquiry unfolds, and as a result he will recognize many of the claims that he put forward initially as confused and provincial, though he will continue to assert any confusions that are not emended. The Meditations does not draw out all of the implications of the primary notions of metaphysics; at the end of the Meditations the meditator is not a full-blown Cartesian, and a number of Cartesian theses (e.g., necessitarianism) are generated only with further reflection. Finally, the Meditations is written for reception by a variety of minds, so that readers from a number of backgrounds and confusions would be able to start from their first-person epistemic position and move in the direction of truth. Descartes is of course interested in locating ideas that are an accurate representation of reality, but he is also interested in pedagogy and the rhetoric of inquiry, or else communication would be for nought. He employs the analytic method to help his readers to move from and beyond a faulty paradigm.
Ann Rigney
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644018
- eISBN:
- 9780191738784
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644018.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Using street-names referring to Waverley and Abbotsford as a starting point, this book explains how the work of Walter Scott (1771-1832) became an all-pervasive point of reference for cultural memory ...
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Using street-names referring to Waverley and Abbotsford as a starting point, this book explains how the work of Walter Scott (1771-1832) became an all-pervasive point of reference for cultural memory and collective identity in the nineteenth century, and why he no longer has this role. It breaks new ground in memory studies and the study of literary reception by examining the dynamics of cultural memory and the ‘social life’ of literary texts across several generations and multiple media. Attention is paid to the remediation of the Waverley novels as they travelled into painting, the theatre, and material culture, as well as to the role of ‘Scott’ as a memory site in the public sphere for a century after his death. Using a wide range of examples and supported by many illustrations, this book demonstrates how remembering Scott’s work helped shape national and transnational identities up to World War I, and contributed to the emergence of the idea of an English-speaking world encompassing Scotland, the British Empire, and the United States. It shows how Scott’s work provided an imaginative resource for creating a collective relation to the past that was compatible with widespread mobility and social change; and that he thus forged a potent alliance between memory, literature, and identity that was eminently suited to modernizing. In the process he helped prepare his own obsolescence. But if Scott’s work is now largely forgotten, his legacy continues in the widespread belief that showcasing the past is a condition for transcending it.Less
Using street-names referring to Waverley and Abbotsford as a starting point, this book explains how the work of Walter Scott (1771-1832) became an all-pervasive point of reference for cultural memory and collective identity in the nineteenth century, and why he no longer has this role. It breaks new ground in memory studies and the study of literary reception by examining the dynamics of cultural memory and the ‘social life’ of literary texts across several generations and multiple media. Attention is paid to the remediation of the Waverley novels as they travelled into painting, the theatre, and material culture, as well as to the role of ‘Scott’ as a memory site in the public sphere for a century after his death. Using a wide range of examples and supported by many illustrations, this book demonstrates how remembering Scott’s work helped shape national and transnational identities up to World War I, and contributed to the emergence of the idea of an English-speaking world encompassing Scotland, the British Empire, and the United States. It shows how Scott’s work provided an imaginative resource for creating a collective relation to the past that was compatible with widespread mobility and social change; and that he thus forged a potent alliance between memory, literature, and identity that was eminently suited to modernizing. In the process he helped prepare his own obsolescence. But if Scott’s work is now largely forgotten, his legacy continues in the widespread belief that showcasing the past is a condition for transcending it.
Gerard O'Daly
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199263950
- eISBN:
- 9780191741364
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199263950.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Prudentius is arguably the greatest Latin poet of late antiquity. This book provides the Latin text, a new English verse translation, and critical reviews on each of his twelve lyric poems, the ...
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Prudentius is arguably the greatest Latin poet of late antiquity. This book provides the Latin text, a new English verse translation, and critical reviews on each of his twelve lyric poems, the Cathemerinon, Poems for the Day, which were published early in the fifth century ad. They reflect the religious concerns of the increasingly Christianized western Roman Empire in the age of the emperor Theodosius and Ambrose of Milan, but they are above all the writings of a private person, and of the ways in which his religious beliefs colour his everyday life. Several of these poems follow the day's course, from pre-dawn to mealtime and nightfall. Others celebrate Christ's miracles, cult of the dead, and the feasts of Christmas and Epiphany. They are rich in biblical themes and narratives, images and symbols. But they are written in the classical metres of Latin poetry, use its vocabulary and metaphors, and exploit its themes as much as those of the Bible. They achieve a remarkable creative tension between the two worlds that determined Prudentius' culture: the beliefs and practices, sacred books and doctrines of Christianity, and the traditions, poetry, and ideas of the Greeks and Romans. A good part of the attractiveness of these poems comes from the interplay in Prudentius' reception of these two worlds.Less
Prudentius is arguably the greatest Latin poet of late antiquity. This book provides the Latin text, a new English verse translation, and critical reviews on each of his twelve lyric poems, the Cathemerinon, Poems for the Day, which were published early in the fifth century ad. They reflect the religious concerns of the increasingly Christianized western Roman Empire in the age of the emperor Theodosius and Ambrose of Milan, but they are above all the writings of a private person, and of the ways in which his religious beliefs colour his everyday life. Several of these poems follow the day's course, from pre-dawn to mealtime and nightfall. Others celebrate Christ's miracles, cult of the dead, and the feasts of Christmas and Epiphany. They are rich in biblical themes and narratives, images and symbols. But they are written in the classical metres of Latin poetry, use its vocabulary and metaphors, and exploit its themes as much as those of the Bible. They achieve a remarkable creative tension between the two worlds that determined Prudentius' culture: the beliefs and practices, sacred books and doctrines of Christianity, and the traditions, poetry, and ideas of the Greeks and Romans. A good part of the attractiveness of these poems comes from the interplay in Prudentius' reception of these two worlds.
Jonardon Ganeri
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198237884
- eISBN:
- 9780191679544
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198237884.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
The author of this book defends a conception of language as essentially a means for the reception of knowledge through testimony. He argues that the possibility of testimony constrains the form of a ...
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The author of this book defends a conception of language as essentially a means for the reception of knowledge through testimony. He argues that the possibility of testimony constrains the form of a theory of meaning. In particular, the semantic power of a word, its ability to stand for or take the place of a thing, derives from the epistemic powers of understanders, their capacity to acquire knowledge simply by understanding what is said. The author finds this account in the work of certain Indian philosophers of language, those belonging to the late classical school of Navya-Nyāya. He presents a detailed analysis of their theories, paying particular attention to the influential 17th-century philosopher Gadādhara. The author examines the Indian account of the meaning relation and its relata, the role of modes of thought as meaning constituents, and the application of the theory to theoretical names and anaphora.Less
The author of this book defends a conception of language as essentially a means for the reception of knowledge through testimony. He argues that the possibility of testimony constrains the form of a theory of meaning. In particular, the semantic power of a word, its ability to stand for or take the place of a thing, derives from the epistemic powers of understanders, their capacity to acquire knowledge simply by understanding what is said. The author finds this account in the work of certain Indian philosophers of language, those belonging to the late classical school of Navya-Nyāya. He presents a detailed analysis of their theories, paying particular attention to the influential 17th-century philosopher Gadādhara. The author examines the Indian account of the meaning relation and its relata, the role of modes of thought as meaning constituents, and the application of the theory to theoretical names and anaphora.
Gerard O'Daly
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199263950
- eISBN:
- 9780191741364
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199263950.003.0014
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter gives a brief survey of Prudentius reception from the late fifth to the twentieth centuries.
This chapter gives a brief survey of Prudentius reception from the late fifth to the twentieth centuries.
Michael Ward
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195313871
- eISBN:
- 9780199871964
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313871.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
The Chronicles of Narnia present problems of occasion, composition, and reception, and theories have been advanced as to what might give the seven books coherence despite their superficial ...
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The Chronicles of Narnia present problems of occasion, composition, and reception, and theories have been advanced as to what might give the seven books coherence despite their superficial heterogeneity. Christological and numerological theories have been advanced. Lewis's interest in literary atmosphere (what he called ‘the kappa element’) and in the philosophical distinction between Enjoyment and Contemplation are pertinent to this discussion. Lewis was temperamentally a secretive man and, as a medievalist, was professionally occupied with texts which prized the cryptic and the multivalent. His deep and lifelong immersion in the planets of the medieval cosmos and the silent music of the spheres is especially relevant in this connection.Less
The Chronicles of Narnia present problems of occasion, composition, and reception, and theories have been advanced as to what might give the seven books coherence despite their superficial heterogeneity. Christological and numerological theories have been advanced. Lewis's interest in literary atmosphere (what he called ‘the kappa element’) and in the philosophical distinction between Enjoyment and Contemplation are pertinent to this discussion. Lewis was temperamentally a secretive man and, as a medievalist, was professionally occupied with texts which prized the cryptic and the multivalent. His deep and lifelong immersion in the planets of the medieval cosmos and the silent music of the spheres is especially relevant in this connection.
Michael Ward
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195313871
- eISBN:
- 9780199871964
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313871.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
The problem of reception, which has already been partly solved by addressing the problems of occasion and composition, is further solved by a consideration of how the fairy‐tale genre builds a bridge ...
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The problem of reception, which has already been partly solved by addressing the problems of occasion and composition, is further solved by a consideration of how the fairy‐tale genre builds a bridge between the conscious and the unconscious mind and by the fact that the two things which the Narniad implicitly conveys (the argument from Miracles and the planetary archetypes) are themselves best understood through Enjoyment, not Contemplation. Objections considered, such as ‘Are the Chronicles properly understood as allegory rather than as symbol?’ and ‘Does not disclosure of this secret frustrate Lewis's imaginative purposes?’ His abiding interest in models of the universe and the myths that follow in the wake of scientific advances.Less
The problem of reception, which has already been partly solved by addressing the problems of occasion and composition, is further solved by a consideration of how the fairy‐tale genre builds a bridge between the conscious and the unconscious mind and by the fact that the two things which the Narniad implicitly conveys (the argument from Miracles and the planetary archetypes) are themselves best understood through Enjoyment, not Contemplation. Objections considered, such as ‘Are the Chronicles properly understood as allegory rather than as symbol?’ and ‘Does not disclosure of this secret frustrate Lewis's imaginative purposes?’ His abiding interest in models of the universe and the myths that follow in the wake of scientific advances.
Troels Engberg‐Pedersen
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199558568
- eISBN:
- 9780191720970
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199558568.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter takes the materialistic understanding of the resurrection body and the pneuma into the broader field of all the genuine Pauline letters (apart from the letter to Philemon), from 1 ...
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This chapter takes the materialistic understanding of the resurrection body and the pneuma into the broader field of all the genuine Pauline letters (apart from the letter to Philemon), from 1 Thessalonians, over Galatians, 1-2 Corinthians, and Philippians to Romans. The aim is to analyse a range of passages and themes as seen in relation to the cosmology that Paul is apparently presupposing in his ad hoc remarks throughout the letters. Do Philippians 3 and 2 Corinthians 4-5 fit the picture of the resurrection given in 1 Corinthians 15? How is the pneuma related to Christ? And how to God? When and how did believers receive the pneuma as a ‘first instalment’ already in the present life? And having received it literally and cosmologically from above, do they also use it in their address to God in the other direction, in prayer?Less
This chapter takes the materialistic understanding of the resurrection body and the pneuma into the broader field of all the genuine Pauline letters (apart from the letter to Philemon), from 1 Thessalonians, over Galatians, 1-2 Corinthians, and Philippians to Romans. The aim is to analyse a range of passages and themes as seen in relation to the cosmology that Paul is apparently presupposing in his ad hoc remarks throughout the letters. Do Philippians 3 and 2 Corinthians 4-5 fit the picture of the resurrection given in 1 Corinthians 15? How is the pneuma related to Christ? And how to God? When and how did believers receive the pneuma as a ‘first instalment’ already in the present life? And having received it literally and cosmologically from above, do they also use it in their address to God in the other direction, in prayer?
Candida R. Moss
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199739875
- eISBN:
- 9780199777259
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199739875.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Early Christian Studies
This chapter uses the acts of the martyrs as a window into the reception history of the passion narrative. It begins with a discussion of the ways in which martyrdom was presented as grounded in ...
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This chapter uses the acts of the martyrs as a window into the reception history of the passion narrative. It begins with a discussion of the ways in which martyrdom was presented as grounded in scripture and an interpretation of various commands and instructions given by Jesus in the New Testament. From here it proceeds to analyze in detail the various ways in which narrative elements of the death of Jesus — prayer, crucifixion, overturning tables in the temple, forgiving executioners, the citation of psalmody, the conversion of bystanders, and so forth — were interpreted in the acts of the martyrs for liturgical, rhetorical, and theological effect.Less
This chapter uses the acts of the martyrs as a window into the reception history of the passion narrative. It begins with a discussion of the ways in which martyrdom was presented as grounded in scripture and an interpretation of various commands and instructions given by Jesus in the New Testament. From here it proceeds to analyze in detail the various ways in which narrative elements of the death of Jesus — prayer, crucifixion, overturning tables in the temple, forgiving executioners, the citation of psalmody, the conversion of bystanders, and so forth — were interpreted in the acts of the martyrs for liturgical, rhetorical, and theological effect.
Carl L. Beckwith
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199551644
- eISBN:
- 9780191720789
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199551644.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This chapter offers an historical survey of the place of Hilary in the history of Christian thought and ends with a summary of the editorial changes to Hilary's early works as discussed throughout ...
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This chapter offers an historical survey of the place of Hilary in the history of Christian thought and ends with a summary of the editorial changes to Hilary's early works as discussed throughout the monograph.Less
This chapter offers an historical survey of the place of Hilary in the history of Christian thought and ends with a summary of the editorial changes to Hilary's early works as discussed throughout the monograph.
Ted A. Campbell
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195370638
- eISBN:
- 9780199870738
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195370638.003.008
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Chapter 7 offers reflections on the methodology that the book uses. The methodology includes historical and ecumenical study involving the serious probing of historic claims to consensus and the ...
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Chapter 7 offers reflections on the methodology that the book uses. The methodology includes historical and ecumenical study involving the serious probing of historic claims to consensus and the “reception” of those claims in Christian communities. The methodology distinguishes “doctrine” (communal teaching) from “theology” (any critical reflection on religious teachings) and “popular religion” (the actual beliefs of people, whether or not they have been formally affirmed by communities). It concludes with reflections on the difficulty and the possibility of communication and understanding across wide cultural and linguistic boundaries, because cross-cultural understanding is necessary for the claims the book has made.Less
Chapter 7 offers reflections on the methodology that the book uses. The methodology includes historical and ecumenical study involving the serious probing of historic claims to consensus and the “reception” of those claims in Christian communities. The methodology distinguishes “doctrine” (communal teaching) from “theology” (any critical reflection on religious teachings) and “popular religion” (the actual beliefs of people, whether or not they have been formally affirmed by communities). It concludes with reflections on the difficulty and the possibility of communication and understanding across wide cultural and linguistic boundaries, because cross-cultural understanding is necessary for the claims the book has made.
Verena M. Lepper and Roland Enmarch
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265420
- eISBN:
- 9780191760471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265420.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This introductory chapter discusses briefly the history of the study of Egyptian literature, highlighting how broader developments in the theory of literature have come to be applied within ...
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This introductory chapter discusses briefly the history of the study of Egyptian literature, highlighting how broader developments in the theory of literature have come to be applied within Egyptology, and outlining the significant interpretative issues that still remain. This is particularly acute when studying a civilisation such as Ancient Egypt, with an only fragmentarily preserved literate culture, and no continuous tradition of reception to condition modern engagement with the ancient texts. The chapter reviews the approaches taken by contributors to the volume, and evaluates how they relate to recent developments in the application of theoretically informed approaches to Egyptian texts. The range of topics covered demonstrates the vitality and diversity of current Egyptological engagement with Ancient Egyptian texts.Less
This introductory chapter discusses briefly the history of the study of Egyptian literature, highlighting how broader developments in the theory of literature have come to be applied within Egyptology, and outlining the significant interpretative issues that still remain. This is particularly acute when studying a civilisation such as Ancient Egypt, with an only fragmentarily preserved literate culture, and no continuous tradition of reception to condition modern engagement with the ancient texts. The chapter reviews the approaches taken by contributors to the volume, and evaluates how they relate to recent developments in the application of theoretically informed approaches to Egyptian texts. The range of topics covered demonstrates the vitality and diversity of current Egyptological engagement with Ancient Egyptian texts.
John Barton
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265420
- eISBN:
- 9780191760471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265420.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Readers of ancient texts often assume that they are looking for the meaning intended by the author. Trends in modern literary theory, from the ‘New Criticism’ to structuralism and postmodern ...
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Readers of ancient texts often assume that they are looking for the meaning intended by the author. Trends in modern literary theory, from the ‘New Criticism’ to structuralism and postmodern deconstruction, have called this into question. In its place readers look either for meanings supposedly inherent to the text regardless of the author's intention, or for meanings attributable to the text through creative ‘readings’, without any implication that the text has a ‘real’ meaning. Theorising of this kind has been more typical of the study of modern literature than of ancient texts, but the fact that so much ancient writing is anonymous or pseudonymous might make it an even more suitable case for a literary-theoretical treatment. However, such reading can produce meanings that are completely arbitrary. The work of Umberto Eco can provide a middle way between a textual determinism and total arbitrariness, through his concept of the intentio operis.Less
Readers of ancient texts often assume that they are looking for the meaning intended by the author. Trends in modern literary theory, from the ‘New Criticism’ to structuralism and postmodern deconstruction, have called this into question. In its place readers look either for meanings supposedly inherent to the text regardless of the author's intention, or for meanings attributable to the text through creative ‘readings’, without any implication that the text has a ‘real’ meaning. Theorising of this kind has been more typical of the study of modern literature than of ancient texts, but the fact that so much ancient writing is anonymous or pseudonymous might make it an even more suitable case for a literary-theoretical treatment. However, such reading can produce meanings that are completely arbitrary. The work of Umberto Eco can provide a middle way between a textual determinism and total arbitrariness, through his concept of the intentio operis.
