Masks of Authority
Fiction and Pragmatics in Ancient Greek Poetics
Published on 15. April 2005
Book
Hardback
280 pages
978-0-8014-3892-9 (ISBN)
Description
Exploring a variety of literary texts representing different poetic genres, Claude Calame, an internationally known classicist, draws the lineaments of a real history of the means used by ancient Greek poets to create in their works a fictional authorship. In this collection of essays, he shows that they made of their poems, through various discursive strategies, texts to be performed, with the collective, ritual, and pragmatic values implicit in the ideas of craft and performance.
How is it possible to distinguish between the external context and reception of a discursive work and the elaborate poetic effects produced in the text itself by means of language? Clearly, the partly fictional figure of the author "constructed" by the text is not the same as the biographical author. In ancient Greece, moreover, the person of the composer of a poem was often distinct from the person of its performer.
Important examples in Masks of Authority include some of the Homeric Hymns, didactic poetry by Hesiod, a bucolic poem of Theocritus, performed poetry by Sappho and mimetic poems by Callimachus, Attic tragedy and comedy in masked performances (Sophocles and Aristophanes), an iconographic inscription, an authoritative scientific discourse by Hippocrates, and an initiatory commentary to an Orphic theogony. The result is a selective history of Greek poetics from the perspective of its authorial devices and social functions, its place between oral and written traditions.
How is it possible to distinguish between the external context and reception of a discursive work and the elaborate poetic effects produced in the text itself by means of language? Clearly, the partly fictional figure of the author "constructed" by the text is not the same as the biographical author. In ancient Greece, moreover, the person of the composer of a poem was often distinct from the person of its performer.
Important examples in Masks of Authority include some of the Homeric Hymns, didactic poetry by Hesiod, a bucolic poem of Theocritus, performed poetry by Sappho and mimetic poems by Callimachus, Attic tragedy and comedy in masked performances (Sophocles and Aristophanes), an iconographic inscription, an authoritative scientific discourse by Hippocrates, and an initiatory commentary to an Orphic theogony. The result is a selective history of Greek poetics from the perspective of its authorial devices and social functions, its place between oral and written traditions.
Reviews / Votes
"This volume comprises articles first published between 1986 and 1997, most of which have not previously appeared in English. . . . Their juxtaposition here results in an unfailingly thought-provoking book . . . in a precise and elegant translation . . . . This collection, in all its formidable scope, should have a wide readership . . . . For the international community of classicists, this volume provides an accessible and inspiring cross-section of Calame's recent work."-Helen Van Noorden, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, September 2005 "For the international community of classicists, this volume provides an accessible and inspiring cross-section of Calame's recent work."-Helen Van Noorden, Trinity College "Claude Calame's philological precision, critical creativity, breadth of theoretical strategy, and deep learning in the field of ancient Greek poetry make this a uniquely valuable and exciting collection. Calame pays meticulous attention to the nuances of the varied and intricate ways in which Greek performance literature represents the speaking voice. Calame's work is a highwater mark, showing what sort of interpretation can be done and with what elegance and interpretive power."-Richard Martin, Antony and Isabelle Raubitschek Professor of Classics and Chairman, Department of Classics, Stanford UniversityMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Ithaca
United States
Product notice
Paper over boards
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
907 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8014-3892-9 (9780801438929)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Claude Calame is Director of Studies at the ecole des Hautes etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and Honorary Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the Universite de Lausanne. He is the author of nearly a dozen books, including The Craft of Poetic Speech in Ancient Greece (also from Cornell), Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece, The Poetics of Eros in Ancient Greece, and most recently Myth and History in Ancient Greece. Peter M. Burk is a professional translator and a doctoral candidate in Classics at Princeton University.