Modern Literary Theory and Ancient Texts An Introduction

by Schmitz, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9781405153751
• ISBN10: 140515375X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-10-01
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This book provides students and scholars of classical literature with a practical guide to modern literary theory and criticism. Using a clear and concise approach, it navigates readers through various theoretical approaches, including Russian Formalism, structuralism, deconstruction, gender studies, and New Historicism. Applies theoretical approaches to examples from ancient literature Extensive bibliographies and index make it a valuable resource for scholars in the field

Author Biography

Thomas A. Schmitz is Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Bonn, and is one of the founding members of the Centre for the Classical Tradition. He has previously held positions at Paris, Harvard, Heidelberg, and Frankfurt. He is the author of over 40 books and articles including Bildung und Macht: Zur sozialen und politischen Funktion der zweiten Sophistik in der griechischen Welt der Kaiserzeit (1997) and Moderne Literaturtheorie und antike Texte: Eine Einfuhrung (2002).

Table of Contents

Contents	p. v
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Acknowledgments for the English Translation	p. x
Introduction	p. 1
What Is, and To What End Do We Study, Literary Theory?	p. 1
Literary Theory and Classics	p. 4
Objections Raised against Literary Theory	p. 6
How to Use This Book	p. 11
Introductions to Literary Theory	p. 13
Russian Formalism	p. 17
The Question of Literariness	p. 19
Roman Jakobson's Model of Linguistic Communication	p. 21
Poetic Language as Defamiliarization	p. 23
Further Reading	p. 15
Structuralism	p. 26
The Founder of Structuralism: Ferdinand de Saussure	p. 27
Saussure's Definition of the Linguistic Sign	p. 19
The Meaning of Differences	p. 30
Structuralism and Subject	p. 33
Structural Anthropology	p. 34
Is Structuralist Interpretation Possible?	p. 38
Structuralist Definitions of Literary Genres	p. 40
Further Reading	p. 42
Narratology	p. 43
Vladimir Propp's Analysis of the Folk Tale	p. 44
Greimas's Actantial Theory of Narrative	p. 47
Roland Barthes and the Study of Narrative Texts	p. 50
Structuralist Plot-Analysis: Gerard Genette	p. 55
Irene de Jong's Narratological Analysis of the Homeric Epics	p. 60
Further Reading	p. 62
Mikhail Bakhtin	p. 63
Bakhtin's Life and the Problem of His Writings	p. 64
Dialogism and the Novel	p. 66
The Carnivalization of Literature	p. 69
Menippean Satire and Ancient Carnivalesque Literature	p. 71
Further Reading	p. 76
Intertextuality	p. 77
Leading the Way: Julia Kristeva	p. 77
Further Developments of Intertextuality	p. 78
Gerard Genette's Model of Hypertextuality	p. 80
Intertextuality in Virgil	p. 83
Further Reading	p. 85
Reader-Response Criticism	p. 86
Empirical Reception Studies	p. 87
Aesthetics of Reception	p. 88
American Reader-Response Criticism	p. 91
Wheeler's Analysis of Ovid's Metamorphoses	p. 94
Further Reading	p. 96
Orality - Literacy	p. 98
Oral Cultures: The Theses of Goody and Watt	p. 99
What Does "Orality" Mean?	p. 102
Oral Poetry	p. 104
The Homeric Epics as a Test Case	p. 106
Further Reading	p. 111
Deconstruction	p. 113
The Foundations: Derrida's Criticism of Logocentrism	p. 114
Deconstruction in America	p. 120
Objections to Deconstruction	p. 122
The Role of the Author	p. 124
Stanley Fish's Model of "Interpretive Communities"	p. 127
The Responsibility of the Interpreter	p. 130
Deconstruction's Merits and Demerits	p. 136
Deconstruction in Antiquity? Socrates und Protagoras	p. 137
Further Reading	p. 139
Michel Foucault and Discourse Analysis	p. 140
The Power of Discourse	p. 141
Objections to Foucault's Analysis of Discourse	p. 145
Foucault and Antiquity	p. 149
The Debate about Foucault's Interpretation of Ancient Sexuality	p. 153
Further Reading	p. 157
New Historicism	p. 159
New Historicism and Deconstruction	p. 160
New Historicism and Michel Foucault	p. 165
Objections to New Historicism	p. 167
New Historicism and Antiquity	p. 171
Further Reading	p. 174
Feminist Approaches/Gender Studies	p. 176
The Feminist Movement and Definitions of "Woman"	p. 176
Feminism in Literary Criticism	p. 178
French Feminism	p. 180
Pragmatic Feminism in Literary Criticism	p. 182
From Images of Women to Gender Studies	p. 187
Queer Theory	p. 189
Gender Studies and Attic Drama	p. 191
Further Reading	p. 193
Psychoanalytic Approaches	p. 195
Interpreting Dreams, Interpreting Literature	p. 197
Three Attempts at Psychoanalytic Interpretation	p. 200
Language and the Unconscious: Jacques Lacan	p. 202
Further Reading	p. 204
Conclusions?	p. 205
Whither Now?	p. 207
Additional Notes	p. 209
References and Bibliography	p. 215
Index	p. 233
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