Theocritus and Things : Material Agency in the Idylls / Lilah Canevaro.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Canevaro, Lilah, Author.

Series:

Ancient Cultures, New Materialisms : ACNM

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (240 p.) : 11 B/W illustrations

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2023]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Foregrounds underrepresented agents (women, nature and the nonhuman) in and through the poetry of TheocritusProvides a new approach to canonical Greek poetryBrings Classics into conversation with burgeoning theoretical frameworksSpeaks to current political concerns about the relationship between humans and nature Decentres the male human subject and listens to a wider cast of characters, offering a ‘from below’ readingThis book contributes to the literary-theoretical field of Material Ecocriticism, expanding its chronological remit, and is the first to apply it to Classics. Material Ecocriticism has been described as an exercise in listening – and it is to a series of underrepresented agents (women, nature, the nonhuman) in the poetry of Theocritus that this book urges us to listen. This ‘from below’ reading that allows nature and materiality their agency, that sees objects and the labour behind them, gives a new way in to the paradoxes of Hellenistic pastoral poetry: the urban backdrop to bucolic poetry, the artifice of the locus amoenus. This book reveals a detailed picture of material agency and a diverse cast of characters human and nonhuman in Theocritus’ Idylls, showing that while the poetry might be paradoxical it is not rarefied. And through a dark-ecological reading it highlights the darkness that undercuts the idyll.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction: Material Agency

1. The Cup

Material Ecocriticism: An Exercise in Listening

Boundaries: Author, Genre, Tradition

Oiko-criticism and Dark Ecology: Revisiting Hesiod’s Farm

2. The Woman

Material Feminism: Changing Nature

Idyll 1: Ekphrasis and Materiality

Idyll 2: Reading Bodies

Idyll 15: Women’s Work

3. The Fisherman and the Rock

Idylls 7 and 21: Imagined Landscapes

Idyll 23: Vital Stone

Excursus: San Sperate

4. The Plaited Trap

Idyll 1: Creative Matter

Idyll 28: Emigration and Collaboration

From Distaffs to Guineas

5. Beyond the Cup

Idylls 6 and 11: His Monstrous Materials

The Pipes Are Calling

Slàinte

A Concluding Excursus: Marsden

Bibliography

Index Locorum

Subject Index

Notes:

This eBook is made available Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Aug 2023)

ISBN:

1-3995-1751-1

OCLC:

1391438872