Concordia discors : eros and dialogue in classical Athenian literature / Andrew Scholtz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Scholtz, Andrew.

Series:

Hellenic studies ; 24.

Hellenic studies ; 24

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Harmony (Aesthetics) in literature.

Greek literature--History and criticism.

Greek literature.

Sex in literature.

Physical Description:

ix, 174 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : Center for Hellenic Studies, Trustees for Harvard University ; Cambridge, Mass. : Distributed by Harvard University Press, 2007.

Summary:

Writing to a friend, Horace describes the man as fascinated by "the discordant harmony of the cosmos, its purpose and power." Andrew Scholtz takes this notion of "discordant harmony" and argues for it as an aesthetic principle where classical Athenian literature addresses politics in the idiom of sexual desire. His approach is an untried one for this kind of topic. Drawing on theorists of the sociality of language, Scholtz shows how eros, consuming, destabilizing desire, became a vehicle for exploring and exploiting dissonance within the songs Athenians sang about themselves. Thus he shows how societal tension and instability could register as an ideologically charged polyphony in works like the Periclean Funeral Oration, Aristophanes' Knights, and Xenophon's Symposium.

Contents:

Introduction

Lovers of it: erotic ambiguity in the Periclean funeral oration

He loves you, he loves you not: demophilic courtship in Aristophanes' Knights

Forgive and forget: Concordia discors in Aristophanes' Assemblywomen and Lysistrata

Satyr, lover, teacher, pimp: Socrates and his many masks

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 147-163) and index.

ISBN:

0674025989

9780674025981

OCLC:

126226094