Xenophon's Ephesiaca : a paraliterary love-story from the ancient world / by Aldo Tagliabue.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tagliabue, Aldo Carlo Fernando, 1982- author.

Series:

Ancient narrative. Supplementum ; 22.

Ancient narrative. Supplementum ; 22

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Xenophon, of Ephesus. Ephesiaca--History and criticism.

Xenophon.

Ephesiaca (Xenophon, of Ephesus).

Greek fiction, Hellenistic--History and criticism.

Greek fiction, Hellenistic.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

viii, 243 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Groningen : Barkhuis & Groningen University Library, 2017.

Summary:

After many decades of neglect, the last forty years have seen a renewed scholarly appreciation of the literary value of the Greek novel. Within this renaissance of interest, four monographs have been published to date which focus on individual novels; I refer to the specialist studies of Achilles Tatius by Morales and Laplace and those of Chariton of Aphrodisias by Smith and Tilg. This book adds to this short list and takes as its singular focus Xenophon's 'Ephesiaca'. Among the five fully extant Greek novels, the 'Ephesiaca' occupies the position of being an anomaly, since scholars have conventionally considered it to be either a poorly written text or an epitome of a more sophisticated lost original. This monograph challenges this view by arguing that the author of the 'Ephesiaca' is a competent writer in artistic control of his text, insofar as his work has a coherent and emplotted focus on the protagonists' progression in love and also includes references to earlier texts of the classical canon, not least Homer's 'Odyssey' and the Platonic dialogues on Love.0At the same time, the 'Ephesiaca' exhibits stylistically an overall simplicity, contains many repetitions and engages with other texts via a thematic rather than a pointed type of intertextuality; these and other features make this text different from the other extant Greek novels. By offering a definition of the 'Ephesiaca' as a paraliterary narrative, this monograph sheds new light on this novel and its position within the Greek novelistic corpus, whilst also offering a more nuanced understanding of intertextuality and paraliterature.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [217]-234) and indexes.

ISBN:

9789492444127

9492444127

OCLC:

1000439218

Publisher Number:

99975432746