In Search of the Classic: Reconsidering the Greco-Roman Tradition, Homer to Valéry and BeyondPennsylvania State University Press, 1994 - 331 páginas The "classical," Steven Shankman argues, should not be confused with a particular historical period of Western antiquity, although it may owe its original articulation to the literary and philosophical explorations of ancient Greek authors. Shankman's book searches for and attempts to formulate the shape of the continuing presence--as embodied in particular literary works mainly from Western antiquity and the neoclassical and modern periods--of what the author calls a "classical" understanding of literature. For Shankman, literature, defined from a classical perspective, is a coherent, compelling, and rationally defensible representation that resists being reduced either to the mere recording of material reality or to the bare exemplification of an abstract philosophical precept. He derives his definition largely from his reading of Greek literature from Homer through Plato, from the history of literary criticism, and from the Greco-Roman tradition in English, American, and French literature. Shankman reveals unsuspected yet convincing connections among authors of such widely disparate times and places. His idea of the "classic" that authorizes these connections is presented as normative, thus making possible the evaluation of literary works and, in turn, forthright discussion of what constitutes the "literary" as distinct from other kinds of discourse. Shankman's study runs counter to a strong tendency of contemporary criticism that argues precisely against any distinct category of the "literary." He offers a series of interpretations that cumulatively advance theoretical discussion by challenging scholars to rethink the critical paradigms of postmodernism. At the center of the book is a discussion of the quintessentially classic Valéry poem Le Cimetière marin and the classic qualities it shares with Pindar's third Pythian ode, from which Valéry derives the epigraph for his poem. |
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... language of the philosopher Plato with those of the ideologist Cratylus . The philosopher knows that words need not always mean the same thing , that ambiguity is intrinsic to the linguistic process.1o It is not Plato's pharmacy that ...
... language in this posthumous work , which was not pol- ished by its author for publication , is sometimes rather ... language in such phrases as ' it rains ' " ) . Hence , “ there is no autonomous , nonparadoxic language , ready to be ...
... language , remarks : “ If we must , therefore , seek the speak- ing of language in what is spoken , we shall do well to find something that is spoken purely rather than to pick just any spoken material at random . What is spoken purely ...
Contenido
Rationalism Ancient and Modern | 33 |
Gullivers Travels and the Classical | 49 |
Aristotle on Tragedy | 63 |
Derechos de autor | |
Otras 13 secciones no mostradas
Términos y frases comunes
Referencias a este libro
Soliciting Darkness: Pindar, Obscurity, and the Classical Tradition John T. Hamilton Vista de fragmentos - 2003 |
Voegelin, Schelling, and the Philosophy of Historical Existence Jerry Day Vista previa limitada - 2003 |