Materiality and aesthetics in archaic and classical Greek poetry / Amy Lather.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lather, Amy, author.

Series:

Ancient cultures, new materialisms

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Greek poetry--History and criticism.

Greek poetry.

Materialism in literature.

Aesthetics in literature.

Mind and body in literature.

Philosophy, Modern.

Materialism.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

x, 266 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2021]

Summary:

"Combining New Materialist and cognitive methodologies, Amy Lather shows the different ways in which matter interacted with mind in ancient Greek thought. Her readings centre on the concept of poikilia, a richly multivalent term in Greek aesthetics that is used to characterise artefacts as well as mental activity. By delineating patterns of interaction between living and inorganic beings through the lens of this aesthetic concept, Lather maps a body of canonical texts onto the new critical terrains comprised by the new materialisms and cognitive humanities and reveals the points of intersection between cognitive processes and the material entities produced by them. The result is an innovative contribution to both Classics and New Materialism studies, uncovering the intimate and reciprocal interaction between minds and matter as central to ancient Greek aesthetic experience"--Page 4 of cover.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. A Beautiful Mind: Patterns of Thought and the Decoration of Textiles

Poikilia, Polychromy and Perception

Sensing Fabric in the Acropolis Korai

Visualising Fabric and Constructing Images in Vase Painting

Putting the `Hand' into Handicraft: Poikilia and (Feminine) Thought Patterns

2. Brazen Charm: The Vitality of Archaic Armour

Affective Armour

Bronze as Light

Heavy Metal: The Sound of Battle

Bodies Nonhuman and Superhuman

A Wall of Armour, a Human Boulder and Brazen Voices

The Armour of Achilles and Blazing Weaponry

Life in/of Metal

3. Mind Tools: Art, Artifice and Animation

Paradoxical Poikilia: Labyrinthine Passageways

Poikilia in Miniature

A Wonder to Behold: Pandora in the Theogony

Intelligent Things

Hephaestus' Tools

The Ships of the Phaeacians and Other `Smart' Objects

Conclusion: Poikilia and the Riddle of Speech

4. The Protean Shape of Lyric Poikilia

The Imaginative Matter of Poikilia: Scintillating Objects in Sappho, Alcman and Anacreon

Pindaric Poikilia and the Victorious Imagination

Pythian 8, Pythian 10 and Olympian 1

Olympian 6, Nemean 5 and Nemean 4

Visible and Audible Movement: Poikilia's Scintillating Shape

5. Metis and the Mechanics of the Mind

Crafting Cognition with Prometheus

Metis, the Mother of Invention

Social Media and the Embodiment(s) of Poikilometis: A Viewing Guide

Conclusions

6. The Materiality of Feminine Guile

Hera and the Kestos Himas

Goddesses in Disguise and Divine Assemblages

Aphrodite's Seductive Assemblage in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite

Pandora as Dolos

Killer Style and Tragic Poikilia: Clytemnestra and Medea.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 230-255) and indexes.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

1474462359

9781474462358

OCLC:

1245658374