A New Sublime
Description
In a book "as bewitching and entertaining as a novel" a renowned Italian literary critic "uncovers the unexpected, extraordinary modernity of the classics" (Piero Dorfles). In A New Sublime, literary critic Piero Boitani reveals the timeless beauty and wisdom of ancient literature, highlighting its profound and surprising connections to the present. Ranging from Homer to Tacitus, with Thucydides, Aristotle, Sophocles, Cicero, and many others in between, Boitani's fresh and inspiring insights remind us of the enduring importance and beauty of the classics of the Western canon. Boitani explores what the classics have to say about the mutability and fluidity of identity and matter, the power and position of women in society. He also looks closely at their depictions of force and subjugation, fate and free will, the ethical life, hospitality, love, compassion, and mysticism. Through it all, he shows how the classics can play active roles in our contemporary lives.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Piero Boitani is one of Italy's most renowned philologists and literary critics. An expert on ancient myths, medievalist, and Dante scholar, he is currently Professor of Comparative Literature at the Sapienza University in Rome.
Ann Goldstein has translated into English all of Elena Ferrante's books, including each of the New York Times bestselling installments in Ferrante's Neapolitan quartet, the fourth of which, The Story of the Lost Child, was shortlisted for the MAN Booker International Prize. She has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a recipient of the PEN Renato Poggioli Translation Award. She lives in New York.
Content
- Intro
- A NEW SUBLIME
- PREFACE
- I. THE POEM OF FORCE AND PITY: THE ILIAD
- II. THE NOVEL OF RETURN: THE ODYSSEY
- III. THE BIRTH OF THOUGHT: MYTH AND POETRY
- IV. THE BIRTH OF HISTORY
- V. TRAGEDY AND JUSTICE
- VI. THE TRAGEDY OF KNOWLEDGE
- VII. DEATH AND LOGOS
- VIII. WE, I, THEY, HE: THE LYRIC
- IX. THE INVENTION OF ROME
- X. EVERYTHING CHANGES, NOTHING DIES
- NOTES
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
