The Limits of Exactitude in Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Literature and Textual Transmission

The Limits of Exactitude in Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Literature and Textual Transmission
Author: Nicoletta Bruno
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2022-11-07
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3110796619

Building on Calvino’s observations on Exactitude in Six Memos for the Next Millennium, the present book elucidates on the possible definitions of exactitude, the endeavor of reaching exactitude, and the undeniable limits to the achievement of this ambitious milestone. The eighteen essays in this interdisciplinary volume show how ancient and medieval authors have been dealing with the problem of exactitude vs. inexactitude and have been able to exploit the ambiguities related to these two concepts to various ends. The articles focus on rhetoric and historiography (section I), exact sciences and technical disciplines (II), the peculiarity of quotations (III), cases of programmatic inexactitude (IV) and textual transmission (V). Several interconnected questions weave a net across the volume: to what extent is exactitude the goal in ancient and medieval texts? How can the concepts of accuracy and inaccuracy aid the reinterpretation of an already known text or fact? To what extent can certain definitions of exactitude be stretched, without turning into inexactitude? The volume presents an extensive study capable of highlighting the shrewdness and aptness of the concepts introduced by Calvino more than thirty years ago.

Labor Imperfectus

Labor Imperfectus
Author: Jacqueline Fabre-Serris
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 463
Release: 2023-11-06
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3111341011

Unfinishedness and incompleteness are a central feature of ancient Greek and Roman literature that has often been taken for granted but not deeply examined; many texts have been transmitted to us incomplete. How and to what extent has this feature of many texts influenced their aesthetic perception and interpretation, and how does it still influence them today? Also, how do various editorial arrangements of fragmentary texts influence the reconstruction of closure? These important questions offer the opportunity to bring together specialists working on Greek and Roman texts across various genres: epic, tragedy, poetry, mythographic texts, rhetorical texts, philosophical treatises, and the novel. Reading a text by focusing on its current unfinishedness or incompleteness, or the textual signs suggesting an unfinished or incomplete state, the contributors examine the relations between author, reader and text as underscored by the verbal, generic and aesthetic features of each work. This edited volume brings together a broad spectrum of approaches to ancient and modern texts and aims to reach out to a broad scholarly community consisting not only of Classicists but also scholars of other literature and aesthetics.

The Future of the Past

The Future of the Past
Author: Georgios K Giannakis
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2024-10-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 3111337855

This collective volume contains 27 original studies that address in a critical way the position of classical studies in the twenty-first century and its challenges, as captured in the oxymoron of the theme title 'the future of the past'. The relevance of classical antiquity is reflected in all aspects of modern life: the sciences, the linguistic forms, literary expressions, cultural tradition, religion and ethics, philosophical thinking, modes of argument, political theory, history, the arts, and an entire host of other areas--in a word, much of what modern man is. As the conversation between past and present is best demonstrated at the intersection of different disciplines and cultural trends, interdisciplinary and intercultural topics are discussed in the essays. The contributions are organized in thematic groups according to the topics and sub-topics covered, and explore new ways of viewing the values of the classical past and their relevance to the present and future of societies. The work is of special relevance to scholars interested in classical studies, ancient history, critical thinking, the reception of classical ideas in the modern world, and the relation of the past with the present and the future of humanity.

Flattery in Seneca the Younger

Flattery in Seneca the Younger
Author: Martina Russo
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2024-04-22
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0192672932

Flattery in Seneca the Younger explores the discourse of flattery in Seneca's philosophical texts, and analyses the extent to which Seneca developed a theory of adulation. Martina Russo maps a phenomenology of flattery, tracing its external manifestations in Senecan philosophy. The personal practice of flattery displayed in the Ad Polybium and in De clementia along with the 'distant' exempla of flattery represented by Seneca, and with the theorization of adulation, indicates the range and the complexity of strategic flattery during the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Furthermore, it is argued that Seneca emerges not only as a practitioner of flattery but also as a theorist of it. While many writers tarnished their reputation by giving in to flattery, Seneca was among the few who not only accepted flattery but also advocated it as an essential tool in his own times. Nevertheless, in Seneca's philosophical prose, a constant tension emerges: whereas flattery is 'politically' acceptable as an instrument to cope with the absolute power embraced by the princeps, the sapiens (wise) and the proficiens (would-be wise) should be careful because flattery can seriously compromise their path to wisdom. By analysing the theory and practice of flattery, Russo discusses how passages permeated with the most blatant flattery can be read on a new level, by viewing Seneca's philosophical prose as an extended exercise in symbolic projection and figured speech. It becomes possible to disclose traces of political criticism behind the fa?ade of the most flagrant flattery.

Current Research in Egyptology 2022

Current Research in Egyptology 2022
Author: A. Bouhafs
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 476
Release: 2023-09-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1803275847

The present volume collects thirty-two papers on various topics from the history of Egyptology to archaeology and material culture, from the Predynastic to the Roman period, through history and epigraphy, as well as new technologies.

On the Track of the Books

On the Track of the Books
Author: Roberta Berardi
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2019-06-17
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3110632594

This book offers the hint for a new reflection on ancient textual transmission and editorial practices in Antiquity.In the first section, it retraces the first steps of the process of ancient writing and editing. The reader will discover how the book is both a material object and a metaphorical personification, material or immaterial. The second section will focus on corpora of Greek texts, their formation, and their paratextual apparatus. Readers will explore various issues dealing with the mechanisms that are at the basis of the assembling of ancient Greek texts, but great attention will also be given to the role of ancient scholarly work. The third section shows how texts have two levels of authorship: the author of the text, and the scribe who copies the text. The scribe is not a medium, but plays a crucial role in changing the text. This section will focus on the protagonists of some interesting cases of textual transmission, but also on the books they manufactured or kept in the libraries, and on the words they engraved on stones. Therefore, the fresh voices of the contributors of this book, offer new perspectives on established research fields dealing with textual criticism.

Literary Criticism and Theory

Literary Criticism and Theory
Author: Pelagia Goulimari
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 437
Release: 2014-09-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1135053014

This incredibly useful volume offers an introduction to the history of literary criticism and theory from ancient Greece to the present. Grounded in the close reading of landmark theoretical texts, while seeking to encourage the reader's critical response, Pelagia Goulimari examines: major thinkers and critics from Plato and Aristotle to Foucault, Derrida, Kristeva, Said and Butler; key concepts, themes and schools in the history of literary theory: mimesis, inspiration, reason and emotion, the self, the relation of literature to history, society, culture and ethics, feminism, poststructuralism, postcolonialism, queer theory; genres and movements in literary history: epic, tragedy, comedy, the novel; Romanticism, realism, modernism and postmodernism. Historical connections between theorists and theories are traced and the book is generously cross-referenced. With useful features such as key-point conclusions, further reading sections, descriptive text boxes, detailed headings, and with a comprehensive index, this book is the ideal introduction to anyone approaching literary theory for the first time or unfamiliar with the scope of its history.

Roman and Late Antique Wine Production in the Eastern Mediterranean

Roman and Late Antique Wine Production in the Eastern Mediterranean
Author: Emlyn K. Dodd
Publisher: Archaeopress Archaeology
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020
Genre: Mediterranean Region
ISBN: 9781789694024

Wine was an ever-present commodity that permeated the Mediterranean throughout antiquity. This book analyses the viticulture of two settlements, Antiochia ad Cragum and Delos, using results stemming from surface survey and excavation to assess their potential integration within the now well-known agricultural boom of the 5th-7th centuries AD.

Hendrik Petrus Berlage

Hendrik Petrus Berlage
Author: Hendrik Petrus Berlage
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 350
Release: 1996-01-01
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0892363339

Hendrik Petrus Berlage, the Dutch architect and architectural philosopher, created a series of buildings and a body of writings from 1886 to 1909 that were among the first efforts to probe the problems and possibilities of modernism. Although his Amsterdam Stock Exchange, with its rational mastery of materials and space, has long been celebrated for its seminal influence on the architecture of the 20th century, Berlage's writings are highlighted here. Bringing together Berlage's most important texts, among them "Thoughts on Style in Architecture", "Architecture's Place in Modern Aesthetics", and "Art and Society", this volume presents a chapter in the history of European modernism. In his introduction, Iain Boyd Whyte demonstrates that the substantial contribution of Berlage's designs to modern architecture cannot be fully appreciated without an understanding of the aesthetic principles first laid out in his writings.

The Ascetic Imperative in Culture and Criticism

The Ascetic Imperative in Culture and Criticism
Author: Geoffrey Galt Harpham
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 344
Release: 1992-02-15
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0226316920

In this bold interdisciplinary work, Geoffrey Galt Harpham argues that asceticism has played a major role in shaping Western ideas of the body, writing, ethics, and aesthetics. He suggests that we consider the ascetic as "the 'cultural' element in culture," and presents a close analysis of works by Athanasius, Augustine, Matthias, Grünewald, Nietzsche, Foucault, and other thinkers as proof of the extent of asceticism's resources. Harpham demonstrates the usefulness of his findings by deriving from asceticism a "discourse of resistance," a code of interpretation ultimately more generous and humane than those currently available to us.