Beyond the Second Sophistic : adventures in Greek postclassicism / Tim Whitmarsh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Whitmarsh, Tim.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Greek literature--Rome--History and criticism.

Greek literature.

Greek literature--History and criticism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (293 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The "Second Sophistic" traditionally refers to a period at the height of the Roman Empire's power that witnessed a flourishing of Greek rhetoric and oratory, and since the 19th century it has often been viewed as a defense of Hellenic civilization against the domination of Rome. This book proposes a very different model. Covering popular fiction, poetry and Greco-Jewish material, it argues for a rich, dynamic, and diverse culture, which cannot be reduced to a simple model of continuity. Shining new light on a series of playful, imaginative texts that are left out of the traditional accounts of Greek literature, Whitmarsh models a more adventurous, exploratory approach to later Greek culture. Beyond the Second Sophistic offers not only a new way of looking at Greek literature from 300 BCE onwards, but also a challenge to the Eurocentric, aristocratic constructions placed on the Greek heritage. Accessible and lively, it will appeal to students and scholars of Greek literature and culture, Hellenistic Judaism, world literature, and cultural theory.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction. Beyond the Second Sophistic and into the Postclassical

1. The "Invention of Fiction"

2. The Romance of Genre

3. Belief in Fiction. Euhemerus of Messene and the Sacred Inscription

4. An I for an I. Reading Fictional Autobiography

5. Metamorphoses of the Ass

6. Addressing Power. Fictional Letters between Alexander and Darius

7. Philostratus's Heroicus. Fictions of Hellenism

8. Mimesis and the Gendered Icon in Greek Theory and Fiction

9. Greek Poets and Roman Patrons in the Late Republic and Early Empire

10. The Cretan Lyre Paradox. Mesomedes, Hadrian, and the Poetics of Patronage

11. Lucianic Paratragedy

12. Quickening the Classics. The Politics of Prose in Roman Greece

13. Politics and Identity in Ezekiel's Exagoge

14. Adventures of the Solymoi

References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780520957022

0520957024

OCLC:

857069043