Ancient Greek myth in world fiction since 1989 edited by Justine McConnell and Edith Hall.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

McConnell, Justine, editor.

Hall, Edith, 1959- editor.

Series:

Bloomsbury studies in classical reception.

Bloomsbury studies in classical reception

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature--20th century--Classical influences.

Literature.

Literature--21st century--Classical influences.

Mythology, Classical, in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 pages)

Place of Publication:

London Bloomsbury Academic 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Ancient Greek Myth in World Fiction since 1989 explores the diverse ways that contemporary world fiction has engaged with ancient Greek myth. Whether as a framing device, or a filter, or via resonances and parallels, Greek myth has proven fruitful for many writers of fiction since the end of the Cold War. This volume examines the varied ways that writers from around the world have turned to classical antiquity to articulate their own contemporary concerns. Featuring contributions by an international group of scholars from a number of disciplines, the volume offers a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary approach to contemporary literature from around the world. Analysing a range of significant authors and works, not usually brought together in one place, the book introduces readers to some less-familiar fiction, while demonstrating the central place that classical literature can claim in the global literary curriculum of the third millennium. The modern fiction covered is as varied as the acclaimed North American television series The Wire, contemporary Arab fiction, the Japanese novels of Haruki Murakami and the works of New Zealand's foremost Maori writer, Witi Ihimaera. This book explores the diverse ways that ancient Greek myth has been used in fiction internationally since 1989. Whether as a framing device, or a filter, or via resonances and parallels, Greek myth has proven fruitful for many writers of fiction since the end of the Cold War. Yet their engagement with it has been by no means homogeneous, and this volume examines the varied ways that writers from around the world have turned to classical antiquity to articulate their own contemporary concerns. While Greek myth and literature were key constituents in nineteenth-century realist and early twentieth-century modernist fiction, they faded in significance mid-century, at a time when V.S. Pritchett warned that the novel as a form would be inadequate to the cultural 'processing' of recent atrocities. However, the creative energies released by the end of the Cold War, the rise of the postcolonial novel, and the terrible recent conflicts in the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Africa, which the collapse of the Soviet Union helped to engender, contributed to a remarkable renaissance of significant fiction which engaged once more with the Greeks. By drawing out this dimension, the volume challenges the conventional categorisation of works of fiction according to national tradition, even while the geographical range of the book includes works by Brazilian, French, German, Japanese, Indian, North American, Maori, African, Russian, Greek, Irish, and Arabic writers."--Bloomsbury Publishing

Ancient Greek Myth in World Fiction since 1989 explores the diverse ways that contemporary world fiction has engaged with ancient Greek myth. Whether as a framing device, or a filter, or via resonances and parallels, Greek myth has proven fruitful for many writers of fiction since the end of the Cold War. This volume examines the varied ways that writers from around the world have turned to classical antiquity to articulate their own contemporary concerns. Featuring contributions by an international group of scholars from a number of disciplines, the volume offers a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary approach to contemporary literature from around the world. Analysing a range of significant authors and works, not usually brought together in one place, the book introduces readers to some less-familiar fiction, while demonstrating the central place that classical literature can claim in the global literary curriculum of the third millennium. The modern fiction covered is as varied as the acclaimed North American television series The Wire, contemporary Arab fiction, the Japanese novels of Haruki Murakami and the works of New Zealand's foremost Maori writer, Witi Ihimaera

Contents:

Introduction / Justine McConnell

From anthropophagy to allegory and back: a study of classical myth and the Brazilian novel / Patrice Rankine

Ibrahim al-Koni's Lost oasis as Atlantis and his demon as Typhon / William M. Hutchins

Greek myth and mythmaking in Witi Ihimaera's The matriarch (1986) and The dream swimmer / Simon Perris

War, religion and tragedy: the revolt of the muckers in Luiz Antonio de Assis Brasil's Videiras de Cristal / Sofia Frade

Translating myths, translating fictions / Lorna Hardwick

Echoes of ancient Greek myths in Murakami Haruki's novels and in other works of contemporary Japanese literature / Giorgio Amitrano

"It's all in the game": Greek myth and the wire / Adam Ganz

Writing a new Irish odyssey: Theresa Kishkan's A man in a distant field / Fiona Macintosh

The minotaur on the Russian internet: Viktor Pelevin's Helmet of horror / Anna Ljunggren

Diagnosis: overdose status: critical odysseys in Bernhard Schlink's Die Heimkehr / Sebastian Matzner

Narcissus and the Furies: myth and docufiction in Jonathan Littell's The kindly ones / Edith Hall

Philhellenic imperialism and the invention of the classical past: twenty-first century re-imaginings of Odysseus in the Greek war for independence / Efrossini Spentzou

The "Poem of force" in Australia: David Malouf, Ransom and Chloe Hooper, The tall man / Margaret Reynolds

Young female heroes from Sophocles to the twenty-first century / Helen Eastman

Generation Telemachus: Dinaw Mengestu's How to read the air, Ralph Ellison, and Homer / Justine McConnell

Acknowledgements

List of Contributors

Introduction, Justine McConnell

1 From Anthropophagy to Allegory and Back: A Study of

Classical Myth and the Brazilian Novel, Patrice Rankine

2 Ibrahim Al-Koni's Lost Oasis as Atlantis and His Demon as

Typhon, William M. Hutchins

3 Greek Myth and Mythmaking in Witi Ihimaera's The Matriarch

and The Dream Swimmer, Simon Perris

4 War, Religion and Tragedy: The Revolt of the Muckers in

Luiz Antonio de Assis Brasil's Videiras de Cristal,

Sofia Frade

5 Translating Myths, Translating Fictions, Lorna Hardwick

6 Echoes of Ancient Greek Myths in Murakami Haruki's

novels and in Other Works of Contemporary Japanese

Literature, Giorgio Amitrano

7 'It's All in the Game': Greek Myth and The Wire, Adam Ganz

8 Writing a New Irish Odyssey: Theresa Kishkan's A Man in

a Distant Field, Fiona Macintosh

9 The Minotaur on the Russian Internet: Viktor Pelevin's

Helmet of Horror, Anna Ljunggren

10 Diagnosis: Overdose - Status: Critical. Odysseys in

Bernhard Schlink's Die Heimkehr, Sebastian Matzner

11 Narcissus and the Furies: Myth and Docufiction in

Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones, Edith Hall

12 Philhellenic Imperialism and the Invention of the Classical

Past: Twenty-first Century Re-imaginings

of Odysseus in the Greek War for Independence, Efrossini Spentzou

13 The 'Poem of Force' in Australia: David Malouf, Ransom and Chloe

Hooper, The Tall Man, Margaret Reynolds

14 Young Female Heroes from Sophocles to the Twenty-First

Century, Helen Eastman

15 Generation Telemachus: Dinaw Mengestu's How to Read

the Air, Justine McConnell

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index

CC BY

ISBN:

9781472579393

1472579399

9781474256278

1474256279

9781472579409

1472579402

OCLC:

940438781

Access Restriction:

Open access Unrestricted online access