The classical plot and the invention of Western narrative / N.J. Lowe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lowe, N. J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Classical literature--History and criticism--Theory, etc.

Classical literature.

Classical literature--Stories, plots, etc.

Narration (Rhetoric)--History--To 1500.

Narration (Rhetoric).

Rhetoric, Ancient.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 293 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

The Classical Plot & the Invention of Western Narrative

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

From Homer to Hollywood, the western storytelling tradition has canonised a distinctive set of narrative values characterised by tight economy and closure. This book traces the formation of that classical paradigm in the development of ancient storytelling from Homer to Heliodorus. To tell this story, the book sets out to rehabilitate the idea of 'plot', notoriously disconnected from any recognised system of terminology in literary theory. The first part of the book draws on developments in narratology and cognitive science to propose a way of formally describing the way stories are structured and understood. This model is then used to write a history of the emergence of the classical plot type in the four ancient genres that shaped it - Homeric epic, fifth-century tragedy, New Comedy, and the Greek novel - with insights into the fundamental narrative poetics of each.

Contents:

I. The classical plot. 1. Approaches. 2. A cognitive model. 3. The narrative universe. 4. The classical plot. 5. Unclassical plots

II. The classical plots. 6. Epic myth I: Iliad. 7. Epic myth II: Odyssey. 8. Dramatic myth: tragedy and satyr-play. 9. Dramatic fiction: New Comedy. 10. Epic fiction: the Greek novel.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-285) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-11944-8

0-511-15238-8

0-521-77176-5

0-511-17332-6

0-511-32748-X

1-280-42950-X

0-511-04961-7

0-511-48228-0

OCLC:

475917440