The Development of the Epyllion Genre Through the Hellenistic and Roman Periods

The Development of the Epyllion Genre Through the Hellenistic and Roman Periods
Author: Carol U. Merriam
Publisher:
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2001
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

The epyllion as a genre was developed in the Hellenistic period (and continued into Roman times) in order to show what else was happening while traditional heroic stories, always narrated in epics with particular conventions, were happening. The epyllion challenges these conventions in ways that make it a genre in its own right. This study examines its development through the Hellenistic and Roman periods, focusing on unheroic and female characters.

Brill’s Companion to Greek and Latin Epyllion and Its Reception

Brill’s Companion to Greek and Latin Epyllion and Its Reception
Author: Manuel Baumbach
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 666
Release: 2015-03-20
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9004233059

In classical scholarship of the past two centuries, the term “epyllion” was used to label short hexametric texts mainly ascribable to the Hellenistic period (Greek) or the Neoterics (Latin). Apart from their brevity, characteristics such as a predilection for episodic narration or female characters were regarded as typically “epyllic” features. However, in Antiquity itself, the texts we call “epyllia” were not considered a coherent genre, which seems to be an innovation of the late 18th century. The contributions in this book not only re-examine some important (and some lesser known) Greek and Latin primary texts, but also critically reconsider the theoretical discourses attached to it, and also sketch their literary and scholarly reception in the Byzantine and Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Modern Age.

Genres Rediscovered

Genres Rediscovered
Author: Anna Maria Wasyl
Publisher: Wydawnictwo UJ
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2011
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 8323330891

A reader of the epyllion by Dracontius, the elegy by Maximianus, and the epigram by Luxorius should not expect that these works--and these new embodiments of the 'old' genres--will be wholly identical with their 'archetypes'. Were it so, it would mean that we read but second-rate versifiers, indeed. We may expect rather that thanks to the reading of Dracontius's epyllion, Maximianus's elegy, and Luxorius's epigram our understanding of these very genres may become fuller and deeper than if it was narrowed only to the study of the 'classical phase' of the Roman literature. Therefore, I have decided to employ in the title of my book the expression genres rediscovered. I have found it fair to emphasize that the poets whose works have been studied here merit appreciation for their creativity, and indeed courage, in reusing and reinterpreting the classical--and truly classic--literary heritage. In addition, I have found it similarly fair to stress that for the students of Latin literature the borderline between the 'classical' and the 'post-classical' is, and should be, flexible. It is not my intention of course to imply that aesthetic and poetological differences should be ignored or blurred. Quite the reverse, these differences are profound and multidimensional and as such must be properly understood and explained. The main issue is the fact that studies of Latin literature--or rather of literature in general - and especially generic studies require a proper, i.e. diachronic, perspective. A description of a certain genre based merely on its most important or generally known representative/representatives will always risk becoming incomplete and limited. In genology, one must be utterly prudent in defining the 'main' and the 'marginal', the 'relevant' and the 'negligible'. In this sense, an insight into a few genres practiced by some 'classical'--and classic--Roman poets from the perspective of their 'post-classical' followers may be, also for a genologist, an intriguing rediscovery.

Redefining Elizabethan Literature

Redefining Elizabethan Literature
Author: Georgia Brown
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2004-11-18
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1139455885

Redefining Elizabethan Literature examines the new definitions of literature and authorship that emerged in one of the most remarkable decades in English literary history, the 1590s. Georgia Brown analyses the period's obsession with shame as both a literary theme and a conscious authorial position. She explores the related obsession of this generation of authors with fragmentary and marginal forms of expression, such as the epyllion, paradoxical encomium, sonnet sequence, and complaint. Combining developments in literary theory with close readings of a wide range of Elizabethan texts, Brown casts light on the wholesale eroticisation of Elizabethan literary culture, the form and meaning of Englishness, the function of gender and sexuality in establishing literary authority, and the contexts of the works of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser and Sidney. This study will be of great interest to scholars of Renaissance literature as well as cultural history and gender studies.

Narratology and Interpretation

Narratology and Interpretation
Author: Jonas Grethlein
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 641
Release: 2009-08-17
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3110214539

The categories of classical narratology have been successfully applied to ancient texts in the last two decades, but in the meantime narratological theory has moved on. In accordance with these developments, Narratology and Interpretation draws out the subtler possibilities of narratological analysis for the interpretation of ancient texts. The contributions explore the heuristic fruitfulness of various narratological categories and show that, in combination with other approaches such as studies in deixis, performance studies and reader-response theory, narratology can help to elucidate the content of narrative form. Besides exploring new theoretical avenues and offering exemplary readings of ancient epic, lyric, tragedy and historiography, the volume also investigates ancient predecessors of narratology.

The Rhetoric of Imitation

The Rhetoric of Imitation
Author: Gian Biagio Conte
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 1986
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780801483592

Gian Biagio Conte here seeks to establish a theoretical basis for explaining the ways in which Latin poets borrow from one another and echo one another.

Eros, Imitation, and the Epic Tradition

Eros, Imitation, and the Epic Tradition
Author: Barbara Pavlock
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2019-05-15
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1501746146

Barbara Pavlock here illuminates the significance of the erotic in the epic tradition from Alexandrian Greece to the late Renaissance by examining the transformations of two Homeric episodes, Odysseus' encounter with Nausikaa and the night-raid of Odysseus and Diomedes. In close readings of epics by Apollonius of Rhodes, Virgil, Ovid, Catullus, Ariosto, and Milton, Pavlock shows how these poets maintain the appearance of thematic continuity as they actually differentiate their own views on heroic values from those of their predecessors. Asserting that the erotic serves in the epic as a locus of criticism of social values, she traces adaptations in rhetorical devices, in larger structural patterns, and in major generic forms, as in the combination of tragic with epic models.

Untutored Lines

Untutored Lines
Author: William P Weaver
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2012-03-07
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0748649204

Provides a new understanding of the epyllion as a genre exploiting the subversive potential of various educational thresholds, such as the transition from grammar to rhetoric.

Greek Literature in Late Antiquity

Greek Literature in Late Antiquity
Author: Scott Fitzgerald Johnson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2016-04-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317124758

Late Antiquity has attracted a significant amount of attention in recent years. As a historical period it has thus far been defined by the transformation of Roman institutions, the emergence of distinct religious cultures (Jewish, Christian, Islamic), and the transmission of ancient knowledge to medieval and early modern Europe. Despite all this, the study of late antique literary culture is still in its infancy, especially for the Greek and other eastern texts examined in this volume. The contributions here presented make new inroads into a rich literature notable above all for its flexibility and unparalleled creativity in combining multiple languages and literary traditions. The authors and texts discussed include Philostratus, Eusebius of Caesarea, Nonnos of Panopolis, the important St Polyeuktos epigram, and numerous others. The volume makes use of a variety of interdisciplinary approaches in an attempt to provoke discussion on change (Dynamism), literary education (Didacticism), and reception studies (Classicism). The result is a study which highlights the erudition and literary sophistication characteristic of the period and brings questions of contextualization, linguistic association, and artistic imagination to bear on little-known or undervalued texts, without neglecting important evidence from material culture and social practices. With contributions by both established scholars and young innovators in the field of late antique studies, there is no work of comparable authority or scope currently available. This volume will stimulate further interest in a range of untapped texts from Late Antiquity.

'Untamed Desire'

'Untamed Desire'
Author: Alan Haynes
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Total Pages: 220
Release: 1997
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780811715249

Explores sexual behavior in the Elizabethan age through the literature and literary personalities of the period. A discussion of brothels, love and marriage, homosexuality, and transvestism included.