Preposterous Poetics: The Politics and Aesthetics of Form in Late Antiquity (Greek Culture in the Roman World)
Cambridge University Press
Edition: New, 9/17/2020
EAN 9781108494823, ISBN10: 110849482X
Hardcover, 315 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
How does literary form change as Christianity and rabbinic Judaism take shape? What is the impact of literary tradition and the new pressures of religious thinking? Tracing a journey over the first millennium that includes works in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic, this book changes our understanding of late antiquity and how its literary productions make a significant contribution to the cultural changes that have shaped western Europe.
1. Forms of attention
time and narrative in Ecphrasis
2. When size matters
erotics, the epyllion, and Colluthus' Rape of Helen
3. In the beginning
4. Preposterous poetics and the erotics of death
5. Strange dogs
Joseph and Aseneth and the dynamics of transformation
6. Life forms
biography and rabbinical writing coda
Acknowledgements
Bibliography. Index.