Narrative and identity in the ancient Greek novel : returning romance / by Tim Whitmarsh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Whitmarsh, Tim, author.

Series:

Greek culture in the Roman world.

Greek culture in the Roman world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Greek fiction--History and criticism.

Greek fiction.

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

Narration (Rhetoric).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 299 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Narrative & Identity in the Ancient Greek Novel

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Greek romance was for the Roman period what epic was for the Archaic period or drama for the Classical: the central literary vehicle for articulating ideas about the relationship between self and community. This book offers a reading of the romance both as a distinctive narrative form (using a range of narrative theories) and as a paradigmatic expression of identity (social, sexual and cultural). At the same time it emphasises the elasticity of romance narrative and its ability to accommodate both conservative and transformative models of identity. This elasticity manifests itself partly in the variation in practice between different romancers, some of whom are traditionally Hellenocentric while others are more challenging. Ultimately, however, it is argued that it reflects a tension in all romance narrative, which characteristically balances centrifugal against centripetal dynamics. This book will interest classicists, historians of the novel and students of narrative theory.

Contents:

Introduction

Part I. Returning Romance; 1. First romances: Chariton and Xenophon; 2. Transforming romance: Achilles Tatius and Longus; 3. Hellenism at the edge: Heliodorus

Part II. Narrative and Identity: 4. Pothos; 5. Telos; 6. Limen

Conclusion

Appendix: the extant romances and the larger fragments.

Notes:

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

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-139-03643-2

1-107-22552-3

1-283-05510-4

9786613055101

1-139-04189-4

1-139-04112-6

1-139-04267-X

1-139-04530-X

0-511-97533-3

1-139-03875-3

OCLC:

710974897