Bodily arts : rhetoric and athletics in ancient Greece / Debra Hawhee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hawhee, Debra.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Physical education and training--Greece--History--To 1500.

Physical education and training.

Rhetoric, Ancient.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The role of athletics in ancient Greece extended well beyond the realms of kinesiology, competition, and entertainment. In teaching and philosophy, athletic practices overlapped with rhetorical ones and formed a shared mode of knowledge production. Bodily Arts examines this intriguing intersection, offering an important context for understanding the attitudes of ancient Greeks toward themselves and their environment. In classical society, rhetoric was an activity, one that was in essence "performed." Detailing how athletics came to be rhetoric's "twin art" in the bodily aspects of learning and performance, Bodily Arts draws on diverse orators and philosophers such as Isocrates, Demosthenes, and Plato, as well as medical treatises and a wealth of artifacts from the time, including statues and vases. Debra Hawhee's insightful study spotlights the notion of a classical gymnasium as the location for a habitual "mingling" of athletic and rhetorical performances, and the use of ancient athletic instruction to create rhetorical training based on rhythm, repetition, and response. Presenting her data against the backdrop of a broad cultural perspective rather than a narrow disciplinary one, Hawhee presents a pioneering interpretation of Greek civilization from the sixth, fifth, and fourth centuries BCE by observing its citizens in action.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

A Note on Texts and Translations

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Shipwreck

1 Contesting Virtuosity Agonism and the Production of Aretē

2 Sophistic Mētis An Intelligence of the Body

3 Kairotic Bodie

4 Phusiopoiesis: The Arts of Training

5 Gymnasium I: The Space of Training

6 Gymnasium II: The Bodily Rhythms of Habit

7 The Visible Spoken: Rhetoric, Athletics, and the Circulation of Honor

Conclusion

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-216) and index.

ISBN:

0-292-79727-3

OCLC:

609720254