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Myths reflect, reinforce, and sometimes subvert gender ideologies and so have an influence in the 'real world'. This is true in the present no less than when the Greek and Roman myths were created. The struggles to redefine gender roles and identities in our own time are inevitably reflected in our interpretations and retellings of these classical myths. Using the new lenses provided by gender studies and diverse forms of feminism, Lillian Doherty re-examines some of the major approaches to myth interpretation in the twentieth century: psychological, ritualist, 'charter', structuralist and folklorist. She also explores 'popular' uses of classical mythology - from television and comic books to the evocation of goddesses in Jungian psychology.
Offers profiles of ancient Greek writers, including Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, and Plutarch, and traces the development of Greek literature.
A Handbook to the Reception of Classical Mythology presents a collection of essays that explore a wide variety of aspects of Greek and Roman myths and their critical reception from antiquity to the present day. Reveals the importance of mythography to the survival, dissemination, and popularization of classical myth from the ancient world to the present day Features chronologically organized essays that address different sets of myths that were important in each historical era, along with their thematic relevance Features chronologically organized essays that address different sets of myths that were important in each historical era, along with their thematic relevance Offers a series of carefully selected in-depth readings, including both popular and less well-known examples
Unlike my academic writings and talks on all 19 of Bellow's oeuvre, my memoir deals with The Bellow Years which formed a big chunk of my life - the over a dozen meetings with my mentor, the impact of his life's work on me and the many interesting, erudite, inspiring scholars I met as a result of my interest in the public and private Saul Bellow. To name a few: Liela Goldman, James Atlas, Allan Bloom. I feel all those who know me will come to know the real me after reading my warts and all tribute to the writer who made such a big difference in my life. I regard Bellow as my soulmate and, like so many, "the optimistic chronicler of our times," for his strong faith in individuals and for his credo in being "for all the good things, against the bad." Although he recently died, his teachings will remain with me as long as I live. I hope my tribute will serve as a vehicle to pass on to my family and readers what penetrated my soul and will equally rub off on them. Have a good read.
A Penelopean Poetics looks at the relationship between gender ideology and the self-referential poetics of the Odyssey through the figure of Penelope. She is a cunning story-teller; her repeated reweavings of Laertes' shroud a figurative replication of the process of oral poetic composition itself. Penelope's web is thus a discourse and it can be construed specifically as feminine. Her gendered poetics celebrates process, multiplicity, and ambiguity and it resists phallocentric discourse by undermining stable and fixed meanings. Penelope's poetics become a discursive thread through which different feminine voices can realize their resistant capacities. Author Barbara Clayton's work contributes to discussions in the classics as well as literary criticism, sex and gender studies, and women's studies.
This volume assembles sixteen authoritative articles on Homer's Odyssey that have appeared over the last thirty years. A wide variety of interpretative strategies are represented, including, in addition to traditional close readings, the approaches of comparative anthropology, narratology, feminism, and audience-oriented criticism. Papers have been selected for their clarity and accessibility, and each is informed by close attention to philological and textual detail. A full glossary and list of abbreviations have been included, and a specially written introduction puts the selections in a wider context by giving an overview of major strands in the interpretation of Homer in the second half of the twentieth century.
This book aims to promote a simple idea: that, in the contemporary context of the study and interpretation of classical literature at universities, traditional classical scholarship and modern theoretical ideas need to work with each other in the common task of the interpretation of texts. Such dialogue and co-operation is not merely desirable; it is essential to ensure the survival and relevance of the study of classical literature in the twenty-first century. The topics selected were chosen by a panel of distinguished practitioners as traditional areas of classical literary studies where the importance of co-operation of theory and scholarship could be shown in different ways by scholars who ranged widely in their views: "literary language," "narrative," "genre," "historicism," and "reception and history of scholarship."
In this fascinating addition to the Classical Inter/faces series, Karelisa V. Hartigan suggests that drama was regularly performed in the theatres built within or adjacent to the ancient sanctuaries of Asklepios. She argues that a pageant which showed the enactment of the god healing prompted the dream therapy the patient experienced at the sanctuary. Patients who viewed this drama were ready to receive the nightly ministrations of the deity, his attendants and his animals while they slept in the dormitory at the Asklepieion. To support her thesis, Hartigan discusses the mind-body relationship in the healing process, a relationship the medical profession is beginning to recognize. She concludes by presenting first-hand material based on her experience doing Playback Theatre for patients at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida. In performing improvisational scenes at bedside or in a community space, she has witnessed how the mini-dramas lift the patients' spirits and offer them hope for a successful outcome to their illness.
A Handbook to the Reception of Classical Mythology presents a collection of essays that explore a wide variety of aspects of Greek and Roman myths and their critical reception from antiquity to the present day. Reveals the importance of mythography to the survival, dissemination, and popularization of classical myth from the ancient world to the present day Features chronologically organized essays that address different sets of myths that were important in each historical era, along with their thematic relevance Features chronologically organized essays that address different sets of myths that were important in each historical era, along with their thematic relevance Offers a series of carefully selected in-depth readings, including both popular and less well-known examples