
Theocritus and Things
Material Agency in the Idylls
Lilah Grace Canevaro(Author)
Edinburgh University Press
Published on 28. February 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
248 pages
978-1-3995-1750-8 (ISBN)
Description
This 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.
Reviews / Votes
A brilliant reading of Theocritus that puts his poetry in conversation with new materialism, object-oriented ontology and material ecocriticism. Canevaro hears things in ancient pastoral that haven't been heard before and she voices them wonderfully well. This is a thoughtful, thought-provoking and beautifully written book that everyone working on ancient poetry should read. -- Mark Payne, University of ChicagoMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
11 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
354 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-3995-1750-8 (9781399517508)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Lilah Grace Canevaro is Senior Lecturer in Greek in the Department of Classics at the University of Edinburgh. Her previous publications include Women of Substance in Homeric Epic: Objects, Gender, Agency (Oxford University Press, 2018) and Hesiod's Works and Days: How to Teach Self-Sufficiency (Oxford University Press, 2015).
Author
Senior Lecturer in Greek in the Department of ClassicsUniversity of Edinburgh
Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction: Material Agency
1. The Cup
2. The Woman
3. The Fisherman and the Rock
4. The Plaited Trap
5. Beyond the Cup
A Concluding Excursus: Marsden
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction: Material Agency
1. The Cup
2. The Woman
3. The Fisherman and the Rock
4. The Plaited Trap
5. Beyond the Cup
A Concluding Excursus: Marsden
Bibliography
Index