2002-01-01,Walter Pater,Plato and Platonism,Hardback,9781904303138,24.99,"“By Platonism,” the author clarifies, “is meant not Neo-Platonism of any kind, but the leading principles of Plato’s doctrine, which I have tried to see in close connexion with himself as he is presented in his own writings.” The critique here presented of Plato’s work is never independent of Plato as a man or Plato as philosopher, but rather enables Pater to study the close relation between author and text. The diversity of areas covered is in itself a fine achievement, and Pater is able to give each area enough attention to make it self-sufficient (each chapter was originally a lecture), yet at the same time, he succeeds in unifying all the areas to make for a well-structured book. Especially interesting are the chapter which explores the relationship between Plato and Socrates; the chapter on Plato’s aesthetics; the chapter on Plato’s Republic; and the chapter dealing with the relationship between Plato and the Sophists. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2002-01-01,R. M. Wenley,Socrates and Christ,Hardback,9781904303190,29.99,"“An attempt has been made,” writes the author in his preface, “to show that the development of Greek thought and the peculiar character of Judaism necessarily rendered Christ’s work different from that of Socrates. While dogmatic theology undoubtedly contains very many elements derived from Greek philosophy, Christianity at its source is in no wise Greek. Philosophy partly prepared the way for it, and originated not a few doctrines which afterwards became incorporated in Christian dogma. This, however, was only a secondary relationship.” In this attempt, the author avoids making any new groundbreaking assertions, and focuses instead on the main currents of scholarship that the two poles have attracted. In Wenley’s own words, “no pretence is made to trench upon disputed points of creed.” And this is what makes the book such a useful companion to anyone interested in obtaining an overview which is objective, informative, and all-encompassing. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2006-01-01,Timothy Madigan,Promethean Love: Paul Kurtz and the Humanistic Perspective on Love,Hardback,9781904303626,34.99,"The myth of Prometheus has inspired countless generations of humanists throughout the ages. Prometheus -- who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans to help them survive -- remains a symbol for those who reject theistic orthodoxies and who fearlessly challenge accepted beliefs. Artists such as Byron, Goethe, Beethoven and Wagner have been influenced by this story. Most importantly, Prometheus is a symbol for selfless love. In this collection of essays, the Promethean myth and its relationship to the philosophy of love is explored from its origins in Ancient Greece, to its similarities and contrasts with the figure of Christ. Special emphasis is given to the work and writings of Paul Kurtz, the foremost contemporary defender of humanism as a worldview, who has made the figure of Prometheus a special part of his own philosophy. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2006-10-01,Harry Love,Introductions and Translations to the Plays of Sophocles and Euripides: Vol. I,Paperback,9781847180629,24.99,"The two volumes of essays and translations of the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides are the accumulation of some twelve years’ of producing ancient plays for contemporary audiences and actors. The play-texts themselves, therefore, are intended to be accessible and speakable, in the first instance, and to convey as much of the flavour of the original Greek as any translation is able. They are there to be used. The style, though personal to a degree, is an attempt to maintain the tone and the poetry of tragedy, without dropping into the mock-archaic or turning the texts into self-conscious homilies on contemporary ‘issues.’ The introductory essays are occasional pieces written with production in mind. Two general themes have emerged: firstly, a development of ideas about the nature of the dramatic genre (and dramatic writing) and stage rhetoric – how is irony achieved? What kinds of irony are there? How do we understand emotional experience in a theatre? Secondly, the significance of emotions and the concept of tragedy in the Greek context; Sophocles and Euripides share, as one might expect, a milieu and some rigid theatrical conventions, but within this context they reveal significant differences in terms of dramatic style and audience orientation. The translations and essays are not presented in the order that they were written. Volume I follows the narrative order of Sophocles’ ‘Theban Trilogy’, and Volume II the chronological order of Euripides’ composition. The plays were all produced in Dunedin, New Zealand, in the following order: Oedipus the King 1994 (and 2003); Hippolytus 1995; Bacchae 1997; Antigone 1998; Oedipus at Colonus 2000; Medea 2002; Hecuba 2006. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2006-10-01,Harry Love,Introductions and Translations to the Plays of Sophocles and Euripides: Vol. II,Paperback,9781847180636,24.99,"The two volumes of essays and translations of the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides are the accumulation of some twelve years’ of producing ancient plays for contemporary audiences and actors. The play-texts themselves, therefore, are intended to be accessible and speakable, in the first instance, and to convey as much of the flavour of the original Greek as any translation is able. They are there to be used. The style, though personal to a degree, is an attempt to maintain the tone and the poetry of tragedy, without dropping into the mock-archaic or turning the texts into self-conscious homilies on contemporary ‘issues.’ The introductory essays are occasional pieces written with production in mind. Two general themes have emerged: firstly, a development of ideas about the nature of the dramatic genre (and dramatic writing) and stage rhetoric – how is irony achieved? What kinds of irony are there? How do we understand emotional experience in a theatre? Secondly, the significance of emotions and the concept of tragedy in the Greek context; Sophocles and Euripides share, as one might expect, a milieu and some rigid theatrical conventions, but within this context they reveal significant differences in terms of dramatic style and audience orientation. The translations and essays are not presented in the order that they were written. Volume I follows the narrative order of Sophocles’ ‘Theban Trilogy’, and Volume II the chronological order of Euripides’ composition. The plays were all produced in Dunedin, New Zealand, in the following order: Oedipus the King 1994 (and 2003); Hippolytus 1995; Bacchae 1997; Antigone 1998; Oedipus at Colonus 2000; Medea 2002; Hecuba 2006. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2006-10-01,Richard Pearson,The Victorians and the Ancient World: Archaeology and Classicism in Nineteenth-Century Culture,Hardback,9781847180445,34.99,"In the nineteenth century, the ancient world became a very real presence for many writers and their publics, from the theatre-goers of popular pantomime to the intellectual thinkers in the academic and critical journals. The pre-eminence of the worlds of Greece and Rome was challenged by the discovery of Egyptian and Assyrian cultures, amongst other pre-Greek civilisations, and the worlds were brought to life in a series of high profile archaeological excavations and cultural exhibitions. Alongside the growing modernity of the Age of Steam, the whole of society was exposed to antiquity; architecture, painting, theatre, fiction and poetry, drew inspiration from the stories of the ancient writers, whilst the new museums and academies translated newly discovered languages and texts and excavated rediscovered ancient sites. The great civilisations, brimming with their own art and sculpted histories, were, however, contrasted by the traces of local, pre-civilised cultures of the West that existed before the coming of the Romans or in the Dark Ages immediately after their departure. The sense of a barbarity in man’s past, a primitivism even, that may also be a survival into the modern age gradually grew in the Victorian mind as it uncovered the ancient sites of Britain and the prehistoric peoples of the Continent. It is during the post-Darwinian era of theories of social evolution, anthropology and ethnology that British and prehistorical archaeology began to find a public audience. This volume provides a series of readings from different disciplines that explore the presence of the ancient in nineteenth-century culture. The chapters demonstrate the range of the Victorian cultural preoccupation with civilisation and its primitive counterpoint and offer a combination of analyses of specific cultural events or traits, readings of particular Victorian texts and documents, and studies of exemplary Victorian figures and their personal engagements with antiquity. The book has been arranged to begin with archaeology and end with literary refashionings of the Classical, but the intertwinings of these elements in the Victorian period, as shown here, made the reaction to antiquity often an anxious and complex one. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2007-09-01,Ann Ward,Socrates: Reason or Unreason as the Foundation of European Identity,Hardback,9781847182661,34.99,"Socrates is widely regarded as the first philosopher to investigate not simply the natural world but to make human and political questions concerning justice, virtue and the good life central to rational inquiry. Thus, Socratic philosophy is often viewed as taking a rationalist approach to human narratives and becomes a narrative itself. After Socrates the prevailing view of what defines the Greeks and those commonly regarded as their descendents, the Europeans, is their civilizational foundation in philosophic rationalism. The Socratic conception of Greek and European identity has not gone unchallenged however. In antiquity the comic poet Aristophanes lampooned Socrates as impious and unjust and cast doubt on whether the Socratic way of life was an appropriate basis for politics. Examples from more recent times include the ambiguous place that Socratic philosophizing holds in the philosophies of Hegel, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. The re-assessment of Socratic rationalism in the 19th century has led a to a “post-modern” suspicion of “grand narratives.” The radical critique of Socrates as the remote but powerful source of the priority assigned to reason in the 17th and 18th century Enlightenment(s) has shaken European faith in scientific, social and political progress. The European mind is left longing for a unifying narrative that crystallizes the European identity. Can Socratic philosophy survive the powerful challenges made in the name of history, faith and art? Does Socratic philosophizing adequately sustain political life in the face of such challenges, and does it prioritize reason over other human ways of knowing and representing their world? Alternatively, do the positions of later thinkers offer superior ways to understand the human person and develop political communities? This volume addresses these and related questions as it seeks to recover and revise our understanding of Socratic philosophy as an appropriate paradigm for European identity. It takes an interdisciplinary and international approach with contributions from scholars in the fields of philosophy, classics, religion, English and political science. The contributors teach and research in Europe, Canada, the United States and Iran. ","""A remarkable collection of essays by distinguished international scholars who use Socrates as a point of departure to explore the philosophic roots of Western civilization and European identity. While Socrates emerges as a hero, he is a Socrates whose philosophic rationality comprehends the broad spectrum of human emotional, aesthetic, historical, and spiritual life. The volume challenges contemporary thinking about the Greeks, about reason, and about the future of the West."" Mary Nichols, Chair and Professor of Political Science, Baylor University ""In this volume scholars from an unusually rich diversity of disciplines and of national backgrounds join in fruitful and challenging dialogue, wrestling with the question of the tenability of the Socratic rationalist foundation of European identity. The challenges to Socratic political philosophizing posed by contemporary historicist, faith-based, and artistically inspired thinking are squarely faced; and, in this light, the strengths and the weaknesses of a revived Socratic rationalism, as a response to the need for a spiritual reunification of the West, are deeply explored."" Tom Pangle ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2007-09-01,David Wills,The Mirror of Antiquity: 20th Century British Travellers in Greece,Hardback,9781847182678,29.99,"During the last century, writers as diverse as William Golding, Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, Evelyn Waugh, Virginia Woolf, and Laurie Lee, were captivated by Greece. They were joined in their production of travel accounts by hundreds of lesser-known authors. This book exposes how the responses of travellers were conditioned by much more than their own opinions and personalities. The British education system, classical scholarship, and the heroism demonstrated by the Greeks during the Nazi invasion of their country, all contributed to shaping travel narratives. The author analyses the way in which all of the major archaeological sites were described—including the Athenian Acropolis, Delphi, Olympia, Heinrich Schliemann’s Mycenae, and Sir Arthur Evans’ Knossos in Crete. The representation of the modern Greek people, particularly in the period after the Second World War, is also explored at length. Viewed as relics of the past, the Greeks in literature were given the qualities and appearance of their ancestors. David Wills shows how in the hands of twentieth century travel writers, Greece became less a modern country, and more a mirror of antiquity. This book is essential reading for all who are interested in the history of travel and tourism, reception of the classical past, and recent Greek history. ","""This is a very useful book. I'm very glad that such a useful analysis as this will be published rather than lurking in academic form only. It will be a real contribution to the field."" Dr Christopher Stray, University of Wales, Swansea. ""An amazingly comprehensive and engaging survey of British accounts of Greece."" Dr Michael A. Morse, University of Oxford. Foreword by David Holton, Professor of Modern Greek, University of Cambridge. “....a welcome not only to the research on travel literature about the region but also to the broader issue of the role of Greece in British culture … Wills’ method is scholarly, his research meticulous and the material collected fascinating.” Efterpi Mitsi, University of Athens, Studies in Travel Writing, volume 30, issue 3, September 2009 ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2007-10-01,Stratis Kyriakidis,Catalogues of Proper Names in Latin Epic Poetry: Lucretius - Virgil - Ovid,Hardback,9781847181466,34.99,"The book consists of two main parts: a) Structure and Contents, b) Catalogues in Context: In the first part the major subject is how a catalogue is organized internally. A number of structural patterns formed since Homer on the basis of the position the names held within the catalogue (density in the middle - spacing in the middle -ascending /descending mode - internal balance - erratic pattern) were to continue down to the period of Lucretius, Virgil and Ovid. Each pattern carries its own dynamism in the text and has its particular effects in the reading process. Especially when the poetic work evolves in time, the fluctuation of the density in names per verse entails a corresponding fluctuation of the narrative tempo. On occasion the reader may also recognize in the structure of the catalogue a visual parallel to the situation described. Mirroring technique -widely applied in literary and artistic works in antiquity- finds its place in the poetic catalogues of the period and can be distinguished in three major categories: the extratextual, the intertextual, and the intratextual. In Ovid the technique became most sophisticated. The second part deals with the relation of the catalogue to its surrounding text. In this respect, catalogue-markers and the way a catalogue is introduced or completed are issues which are discussed in this part of the work, as they can be indicative of the way the poet views the contents of a catalogue. What becomes evident here is that the usual catalogue-markers are the products of the notion that whoever or whatever is included in a catalogue is listed there as an individual entity, even if some of its characteristics are neutralized. This proves to be true in Virgil where the items of a catalogue retain their value whereas frame and content function in support of each other. This also occurs in the greater part of the epic tradition. Before Virgil, however, in Lucretius, the frame was often the means of subverting the traditional function of a catalogue, since it usually called into question the very existence of the beings named, or undermined their value. On some occasions, a Virgilian catalogue does not close with a verbal frame but with a pause. This mode of closure proves to be the strongest boundary between a catalogue and the continuation of the narrative. On other occasions we shall find a simile at the end of a catalogue. These closural devices stress the catalogue’s potentials as they affect the reading process. Things change in the Ovidian Metamorphoses. Ovid makes extensive use of various poetic techniques and devices which he draws from the tradition in general and Virgil in particular. In doing so, however, he often challenges their significance and forms catalogues that give the impression of delaying, by protracting the oncoming narrative. In Ovid’s work neither the pause nor the simile can easily constitute natural barriers to his catalogues. Everything in the Metamorphoses is in a continuous state of flux and the catalogue, too, has to adapt accordingly by acquiring new characteristics with novel values. This book is the first of the series Pierides, series editors: Philip Hardie - Stratis Kyriakidis ","BMCR 2009.01.08, reviewed by Christopher Francese, Dickinson College: This book is a new and valuable contribution to the understanding of catalogues of proper names in epic, a subject that has exercised scholars since antiquity and drawn considerable interest in recent years. … Kyriakidis has gone a considerable way to illuminating the function and, yes, beauty, of one of the more maligned, yet fundamental, features of classical epic poetry. ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2007-10-01,Pavlína N. Šípová and Alena Sarkissian,Staging of Classical Drama around 2000,Hardback,9781847183187,34.99,"Classical drama on the modern stage as a cultural and political phenomenon is scholarly trailed since the 1950s and 60s and intensified in the last third of the twentieth century. The evidence is being extensively documented, pioneered by Walton (1987) and McDonald (1992) and subsequently developed by collaborative research projects which include published databases. It is clear from the work of these projects that performance of classical drama is a major feature in all types of theatre – avant-garde and experimental, student, international and fringe, epic and classical, commercial, popular and canonical. This means that it is closely intertwined with the politics of locale, environment and geography as well as of language, translation and culture. Each of the essays has a specialised contribution to make. However, the total impact of the whole section will be even greater than the sum of the parts because the authors not only intersect in their discussions of common concerns in modern performance of ancient drama but also provide case studies that will add to the knowledge base and critical acumen of everyone working in the field. ","""The book...covers a vast theatrical territory and puts forward the opinion of the young generation of researchers, who appear to be a generation highly educated in theatrical history and theory, free of prejudice and open to all that is new."" Eva Stehlikova, Prague, Folia Philologica, 131/2008/3-4 ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2007-11-01,Translated by A. L. Ritchie and J. B. Hall in collaboration with and M. J. Edwards,P. Papinius Statius Volume II: Thebaid and Achilleid,Hardback,9781847183545,39.99,"Publius Papinius Statius was born in Neapolis (Naples) in about AD 50. The twelve books of his magnum opus, the Thebaid, were published in ca. 92. The Achilleid was begun in ca. 95 and left unfinished at his death in ca. 96. The present work, in three volumes, offers a revised text of the two epics with an apparatus criticus (volume I), a prose translation (volume II), and an extensive secondary apparatus accompanied by discussion of the manuscripts and previous editions (volume III). ","""It combines a radically new text, which both draws heavily on conjecture and is based on a broad knowledge of the manuscript and printed traditions, with a precise translation, and a huge amount of additional information and observations. Addressing a scholarly readership, it will undoubtedly foster the present-day renewal in the study of Statius' epics and restore to prominence debates concerning textual criticism and the history of transmission....The present translation is very thorough and easy to read, and it succeeds in being an effective aid. .... The text may satisfy the most vigorous advocates of conjectural criticism, while the materials gathered from both the manuscript and printed traditions are bound to delight even the most conservative minds... Another factor that shapes the primary apparatus is a radically new view of the manuscript tradition, which leads to the rejection of any common siglum (...) and to the individual designation of every manuscript. The result is a succinct, remarkably legible apparatus that is thoroughly informative about the text printed and about variants of particular merit. ... Hall's critical choices ...will arouse lively and constructive discussions for many years to come.... The documentary basis is much broader than that of previous editions. ... The edition of Hall, Ritchie and Edwards ranks very high."" Valery Berlincourt, Univ. de Geneve, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2010.04.10. ""This is an extremely well produced book, for which the authors must be congratulated. I spotted no errors, and it is clearly laid out and well organised...Volume III in particulat is a treasure trove of fascinating material, and any lover of Statius will find much to enjoy in these volumes. These volumes would also make fantastic material for a graduate class in textual criticism."" Helen Lovatt, The University of Nottingham in Exemplaria Classica, Journal of Classical Philology: Volume 14, 2010. ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2007-11-01,Edited by J. B. Hall in collaboration with A. L. Ritchie and M. J. Edwards,P. Papinius Statius Volume I: Thebaid and Achilleid,Hardback,9781847183538,39.99,"Publius Papinius Statius was born in Neapolis (Naples) in about AD 50. The twelve books of his magnum opus, the Thebaid, were published in ca. 92. The Achilleid was begun in ca. 95 and left unfinished at his death in ca. 96. The present work, in three volumes, offers a revised text of the two epics with an apparatus criticus (volume I), a prose translation (volume II), and an extensive secondary apparatus accompanied by discussion of the manuscripts and previous editions (volume III). ","""It combines a radically new text, which both draws heavily on conjecture and is based on a broad knowledge of the manuscript and printed traditions, with a precise translation, and a huge amount of additional information and observations. Addressing a scholarly readership, it will undoubtedly foster the present-day renewal in the study of Statius' epics and restore to prominence debates concerning textual criticism and the history of transmission....The present translation is very thorough and easy to read, and it succeeds in being an effective aid. .... The text may satisfy the most vigorous advocates of conjectural criticism, while the materials gathered from both the manuscript and printed traditions are bound to delight even the most conservative minds... Another factor that shapes the primary apparatus is a radically new view of the manuscript tradition, which leads to the rejection of any common siglum (...) and to the individual designation of every manuscript. The result is a succinct, remarkably legible apparatus that is thoroughly informative about the text printed and about variants of particular merit. ... Hall's critical choices ...will arouse lively and constructive discussions for many years to come.... The documentary basis is much broader than that of previous editions. ... The edition of Hall, Ritchie and Edwards ranks very high."" Valery Berlincourt, Univ. de Geneve, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2010.04.10. ""This is an extremely well produced book, for which the authors must be congratulated. I spotted no errors, and it is clearly laid out and well organised...Volume III in particulat is a treasure trove of fascinating material, and any lover of Statius will find much to enjoy in these volumes. These volumes would also make fantastic material for a graduate class in textual criticism."" Helen Lovatt, The University of Nottingham in Exemplaria Classica, Journal of Classical Philology: Volume 14, 2010. ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2008-01-01,Cynthia S. Colburn and Maura K. Heyn,Reading a Dynamic Canvas: Adornment in the Ancient Mediterranean World,Hardback,9781847184061,34.99,"Personal adornment, as an extension of the body, is a crucial component in social interaction. The active process of adorning the body can shape embodied identities, such as social status, ethnicity, gender, and age. As a result of its dynamic and performative nature, the body can often convey meaning more powerfully and convincingly than verbal communication. Yet adornment is not easily read and does not necessarily reflect actual lived experience. Rather, bodily adornment, and the performances that accompany it, can be manipulated to conceal or exaggerate reality, thus speaking more to identity discourse. The interpretation of such discourse must be grounded in an understanding of the context-specific and negotiable nature of adornment. The essays in this volume, which are united by their focus on material and visual evidence, cover a broad chronological and geographical span, from the ancient Near East to Roman Britain, and bring together innovative scholarly work on adornment by an international group of art historians and archaeologists. This attention to the archaeological evidence makes the volume a valuable resource, as those working with material or visual culture face unique methodological and theoretical challenges to the study of adornment. "," The volume is well conceived, and the essays are of high quality. The issue of bodily adornment as markers of status and identity is timely. The marketing of edited volumes of essays is often a problem, but in this case I feel that the general coherence of the issues raised by the essays and the geographical and temporal spread will make the book attractive to classicists, anthropologists, and also scholars involved in women’s studies (the latter because, not surprisingly, a large number of ornaments, both jewelry and those on clothing appear on representations of or in graves or other contexts associated with women.) I can imagine that some faculty will use this volume, among other sources, in undergraduate and graduate courses. - Prof. Susan Downey, UCLA ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2008-04-01,Ahmed Etman,A Belle in the Prison of Socrates,Hardback,9781847185273,24.99,"Socrates represents a turning point in the history of Greek thought. He achieved radical changes in the way of thinking and obtaining knowledge without writing even one word. But through his discussions with his students and contemporary artists and philosophers, he exposed the intellectual vices and failings that dominated Athenian life in the last 30 years of the 5th century B.C., a time that witnessed the disintegration of Athenian Democracy, especially after the Peloponnesian wars which ended with the defeat of Athens. A Belle in the Prison of Socrates presents the character of the renowned Greek philosopher as historically known from the original Greek sources, i.e., The Clouds of Aristophanes, The Dialogues of Plato and the writings of Xenophon. While attempting to capture the historical image of Socrates, the play provides a subtle criticism of our contemporary life as characters and events shed light on the fragility of Democratic practices nowadays. Readers are persistently lured to hold a comparison between Democracy as it originated in ancient Athens and its modern variations and deviations. The play, therefore, addressees not only the classicist but the common reader as well, both in the Arab world and everywhere. A Belle in the Prison of Socrates is a culmination of years of research in Greek history about Athenian intellectual and political life. It blends knowledge and pleasure in a highly entertaining dramatic composition ","“This play takes the Athenian thinker Socrates, the ‘gad-fly of Athens’, and follows his conversations at home, in the Agora, on the city walls of the defeated polis and in his eventual trial, imprisonment and execution at the behest of the restored democracy. The dramatic structure and idiom of the play draws on and reworks major classical sources on Socrates’ life and thought. Etman contextualizes these in the themes of the war between the Athenians and the Spartans and the resulting disruptions of Hellenic social identity and unity amid the shifting alliances with Persia"" —Lorna Hardwick, Prof. of Classics. The Open University. U.K. ""Democratia herself in my prison’, Socrates exclaims, wondering who that phantom may be that haunts him in the sudden absence of his guards! ‘Socrates…you are a god Socrates’, she replies. Two these sentences, belonging to the last moments of Socrates in prison, reveal a lot. On the one hand, there is this man, a philosopher, dressed in rags, bare-footed, a louse on his bald-head, meditating in his last moments, not afraid to die. On the other hand, there is this woman called Democratia, symbol and allegory, representative of a culture based upon power, manipulation and deceit… As a character belonging to the political arena, she represents just one of the many cheap and superficial humans, who do not understand at all what Socrates is dealing with"" —Freddy Decreus, Professor of Classics. University of Ghent, Belgium ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2008-04-01,"Edward Bragg, Lisa Irene Hau and Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis",Beyond the Battlefields: New Perspectives on Warfare and Society in the Graeco-Roman World,Hardback,9781847185167,39.99,"Beyond the Battlefields explores the relationship between warfare and society in the Graeco-Roman world through the various lenses of history, art, literature and archaeology. The study of ancient warfare often evokes images of crusty old scholars pouring over battle tactics and strategy. This book, a collection of thirteen essays by young scholars, examines the political, social, economic and artistic affects of war in ancient society in Greece and Rome, from Homeric times to the sixth century AD. Essays focus on a wide range of topics from espionage and ancient spin doctors to fantasies of peace in the Iliad and triumphal plants. Each article in this book presents the next scholarly generation’s new and dynamic approach to ancient warfare and seeks to demonstrate how much there is still to learn and understand about ancient society and warfare if we venture beyond the battlefields. “This volume represents a new wave of interest in warfare as a far more than merely military phenomenon.” Professors Brian Campbell and Hans Van Wees, excerpt from the Introduction. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2008-04-01,J. B. Hall in collaboration with A. L. Ritchie and M. J. Edwards,P. Papinius Statius: Thebaid and Achilleid Volume III,Hardback,9781847184900,49.99,"Volume III of the present work on Statius' Thebaid and Achilleid is divided into two parts. The first part offers a sketch of the history of the textual transmission, a complete list of manuscripts, discussion of various previous editions, exposition of the views about the manuscripts which underly the present edition, and an orthographical index. The second part comprises a secondary apparatus, which tabulates further evidence from the manuscripts and all conjectures not recorded in the primary apparatus. ","""It combines a radically new text, which both draws heavily on conjecture and is based on a broad knowledge of the manuscript and printed traditions, with a precise translation, and a huge amount of additional information and observations. Addressing a scholarly readership, it will undoubtedly foster the present-day renewal in the study of Statius' epics and restore to prominence debates concerning textual criticism and the history of transmission....The present translation is very thorough and easy to read, and it succeeds in being an effective aid. .... The text may satisfy the most vigorous advocates of conjectural criticism, while the materials gathered from both the manuscript and printed traditions are bound to delight even the most conservative minds... Another factor that shapes the primary apparatus is a radically new view of the manuscript tradition, which leads to the rejection of any common siglum (...) and to the individual designation of every manuscript. The result is a succinct, remarkably legible apparatus that is thoroughly informative about the text printed and about variants of particular merit. ... Hall's critical choices ...will arouse lively and constructive discussions for many years to come.... The documentary basis is much broader than that of previous editions. ... The edition of Hall, Ritchie and Edwards ranks very high."" Valery Berlincourt, Univ. de Geneve, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2010.04.10. ""This is an extremely well produced book, for which the authors must be congratulated. I spotted no errors, and it is clearly laid out and well organised...Volume III in particulat is a treasure trove of fascinating material, and any lover of Statius will find much to enjoy in these volumes. These volumes would also make fantastic material for a graduate class in textual criticism."" Helen Lovatt, The University of Nottingham in Exemplaria Classica, Journal of Classical Philology: Volume 14, 2010. ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2008-09-01,Timothy Madigan,Promethean Love: Paul Kurtz and the Humanistic Perspective on Love,Paperback,9781847187581,16.99,"The myth of Prometheus has inspired countless generations of humanists throughout the ages. Prometheus -- who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans to help them survive -- remains a symbol for those who reject theistic orthodoxies and who fearlessly challenge accepted beliefs. Artists such as Byron, Goethe, Beethoven and Wagner have been influenced by this story. Most importantly, Prometheus is a symbol for selfless love. In this collection of essays, the Promethean myth and its relationship to the philosophy of love is explored from its origins in Ancient Greece, to its similarities and contrasts with the figure of Christ. Special emphasis is given to the work and writings of Paul Kurtz, the foremost contemporary defender of humanism as a worldview, who has made the figure of Prometheus a special part of his own philosophy. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2008-11-01,Jakub Pigoń,The Children of Herodotus: Greek and Roman Historiography and Related Genres,Hardback,978-1-4438-0015-0,39.99,"This book consists of 22 papers originally presented during the conference on ancient historical writing held in May 2007 in Wrocław, Poland. The authors are classical historians and philologists from academic institutions in Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The collection responds to a growing interest among classical scholars in historiography and such related genres as ethnography and biography. The focus of the volume is, on the one hand, on the ancient historians’ methods of approaching the external world, especially a non-Greek (or non-Roman) world, and, on the other, on the political dimension of historical writing, especially of Roman imperial historiography. There are also papers devoted to pointing and defining links between historiography and other literary genres such as epic or novel. Much attention is given to classical Greek historiography (Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon), but other authors and periods are also discussed. The book is addressed to classical scholars, historians of historiography and anyone interested in ancient world. With a view to a non-specialist reader, all Greek and most Latin quotations are translated. ","""Herodotus dispensed praise and blame, told stories and attempted to assess the veracity of his sources, described manners and customs, probed political arrangements, and wondered about human mind and nature. In this sense all historians are The Children of Herodotus, and the collection at hand illustrates this vividly. The volume presents a fascinating tour of ancient historiography. Beginning with Herodotus himself the papers deal with the great figures of Thucydides, Xenophon and Tacitus, and proceed to a glittering variety of scriptores. The ancient progeny of Herodotus was a multifarious family; the present volume also speaks in many voices but consonant in the effort to preserve and comprehend the astonishing achievement of classical historiography."" —Jerzy Linderski, Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ""The twenty-two papers in this outstanding volume, ranging from the beginning to the end of antiquity, demonstrate the extraordinary vitality of Herodotus’ legacy, and raise issues of central importance for all students of historiography. These latest children of Herodotus pay him worthy tribute. —Robert L. Fowler, Professor of Greek, University of Bristol ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2008-12-01,Beth Alpert Nakhai,The World of Women in the Ancient and Classical Near East,Hardback,978-1-4438-0030-3,39.99,"The World of Women in the Ancient and Classical Near East, written by scholars working in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Israel, makes important contributions to our knowledge of the lives of ancient women. Its articles employ archaeology, biblical and other textual studies, ethnographic comparanda and more to investigate women in Egypt and western Asia from the Predynastic to the Byzantine Periods, as well as in England in the Victorian Era. They combat modern scholarship’s marginalization of women in antiquity, proving beyond all doubt that women’s roles in the home, in the workplace and in society at-large were essential for the survival of the family and the community. Locating women within the domestic sphere can no longer be seen to diminish appreciation of their extensive responsibilities and accomplishments. To the contrary, women’s domestic contributions are proven to be essential components of human survival, as are their contributions elsewhere throughout society, in elite royal, religious, and funerary contexts. The nine articles in this book highlight the fact that the traditional scholarly reliance upon dichotomization and compartmentalization must be resisted, and new paradigms developed and adopted. The World of Women in the Ancient and Classical Near East takes important steps in that direction. ","The World of Women in the Ancient and Classical Near East marks a significant step forward in the understanding of the critical importance women played in daily life during antiquity in the eastern Mediterranean. The nine contributions to the volume are offered by established scholars whose expertise informs on the varied roles undertaken by women as they performed activities essential to the survival of the household—certainly the most fundamental and pivotal arena for human interaction during the course of the ancient world. Reflecting diverse methodologies and varied resources, the essays reinforce the primacy of female agency within the home, and the incorporation of archaeology, textual studies, and ethnographic comparanda brings together relevant data that belies long-held traditional beliefs that women’s contributions to social, economic, and political spheres were slight. Masterfully edited by Beth Alpert Nakhai, who has championed the study of gender issues in antiquity, the volume embraces a chronological spread and a geographic diversity that enhances its importance as one that will advance the discourse on the reality of women in the ancient Near East for some time to come. —Dr. Nancy Serwint, Acting Director and Associate Professor, School of Art, Herberger College of the Arts, Arizona State University “This collection of essays is a welcome and important publication--a must-read for everyone interested in the archaeology of Syria-Palestine and the history of women in antiquity. Its highly readable studies provide stunning examples of the way archaeological data can produce otherwise unavailable information about women's lives and even challenge traditional notions of gender dynamics in the ancient and classical Near East.” —Carol Meyers, Mary Grace Wilson Professor, Duke University ""There are a number of articles that are excellent examples of ANE work on women and gender in this volume"" Stephanie L. Budin, Rutgers University, Camden, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2009.10.60 ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009-01-01,Dunstan Lowe and Kim Shahabudin,Classics For All: Reworking Antiquity in Mass Culture,Hardback,978-1-4438-0120-1,44.99,"Classical culture belongs to us all: whether as academic subject or as entertainment, it constantly stimulates new ideas. In recent years, following Gladiator’s successful revival of the ‘toga epic’, studies of the ancient world in cinema have drawn increasing attention from authors and readers. This collection builds on current interest in this topic, taking its readers past the usual boundaries of classical reception studies into less familiar—and even uncharted—areas of ancient Greece and Rome in mass popular culture. Contributors discuss the uses of antiquity in television programmes, computer games, journalism, Hollywood blockbusters, B-movies, pornography, Web 2.0, radio drama, and children’s literature. Its diverse contents celebrate the continuing influence of Classics on modern life: from controversies within academia to ephemeral pop culture, from the traditional to the cutting-edge. The reader will find both new voices and those of more established commentators, including broadcaster and historian Bettany Hughes, Latinist Paula James, and Gideon Nisbet, author of Ancient Greece in Film and Popular Culture. Together they demonstrate that rich rewards await anyone with an interest in our classical heritage, when they embrace the diversity and complexity of mass popular culture as a whole. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009-02-01,Andrea M. Gáldy,Cosimo I de’ Medici as Collector: Antiquities and Archaeology in Sixteenth-century Florence,Hardback,978-1-4438-0172-0,54.99,"Collecting antiquities was a princely pastime that required time, space, money, access to the art market, and to the right advisers. Such collections were gathered in competition with other princes and displayed in the owners’ residences as one of the many manifestations of a choreographed court culture. The aim was to present the prince and collector as a person of taste and discernment; frequently the collection was also used to make political statements that had little to do with an interest in ancient art. Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519-1574) collected antiquities from the moment he became Duke of Florence in January 1537. In so doing, he continued a family tradition from the previous century and also connected with the cultural politics of the main line of the house of Medici. In some cases he even managed to recuperate antiquities once owned by Lorenzo il Magnifico. His collections, growing over nearly four decades, were also fed by gifts, chance discoveries, and acquisitions from Rome. The antiquities were stored and displayed in several rooms in Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Pitti that were open to visitors at the court. Scholars and artists also showed interest in these objects and started to develop an art historical framework that took into account differences in provenance, style, or material. This study is exploring the collections and the collector’s aims in putting together one of the major examples of a princely collection of antiquities. Both the categories of the objects and the forms of display adopted at different times during Cosimo’s reign are discussed in the historical context of a developing and expanding independent principality. Using a wealth of (mostly unpublished) archival sources, this volume attempts to reconstruct as far as possible the collection and its display in Florence. It also sets out the archaeological and artistic context of Cosimo’s collection of antiquities that survives in part in the Florentine museums. ","“With her sharp understanding of the complex history of the changes Palazzo Vecchio underwent at the hands of duke Cosimo I de’Medici, Andrea Gáldy in this book sheds precious new light on the original settings of Cosimo’s famed collections of antiquities. Importantly, Gáldy highlights Cosimo as a collector of antiquities by systematically putting his collections into the perspective of the physical surroundings he had created for them and the spatial arrangements he had given them. She is the first to have done so. And while asking herself what these ambiances and arrangements actually looked like, the author also probes deeply into the question as how these collections functioned. She reveals the shifting cultural and political dimensions Cosimo lent to them. Finally, she firmly places Cosimo’s collecting of antiquities in the wider context of antiquarian and archeological interest and activity in Florence and Rome in the second half of the sixteenth century. In short, her’s is an admirable achievement.” – Henk van Veen, Professor in Art History, University of Groningen. “Andrea Gáldy’s meticulously documented and beautifully illustrated study of Cosimo’s antiquities is a wonderful demonstration of how much the study of collecting practices can reveal. It is a vital contribution to our knowledge of Cosimo, sixteenth-century Florence, and the origins of museums.” – William Stenhouse, Assistant Professor of History, Yeshiva University. “Andrea Galdy’s richly documented volume presents a contextual analysis of one of the great Renaissance collections of antiquities. More than simply reconstructing this important collection, the author discusses how the display of antiquities influenced the development of sixteenth century archaeological investigation. . . . the first in-depth study of Cosimo’s famed collection of antiquities, considered in its physical, cultural, political and intellectual environment.” – Caroline S. Hillard, Colorado College in Renaissance Quarterly, 2010 ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009-05-01,"Edmund P. Cueva, Shannon N. Byrne and Frederick Benda, S.J.",Jesuit Education and The Classics,Hardback,978-1-4438-0548-3,39.99,"Is Classics still important and relevant to a Jesuit education? The answer is a resounding ""Yes."" Classics remains an essential component of Jesuit education. This series of essays argues and proves that Classics and Jesuit education are indivisibly intertwined. Moreover, any Jesuit school that embraces liberal arts must have Classics at the core of its curriculum. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009-07-01,Adam N. Bartley,Lucian’s Dialogi Marini,Hardback,978-1-4438-0960-3,34.99,"Lucian, born in approximately 125 AD, was a prolific satirical author from the city of Samosata in the province of Syria, now Samsat in Turkey. He was, apparently, not a native speaker of Greek, and yet went on to become an instructor in rhetoric, with posts in Greece, Gaul and Rome, before finally becoming an administrator in Egypt during the reign of the Emperor Commodus and passing away some time after 180 AD. He composed more than seventy works, including many satirical dialogues, speeches and even a short novel. The Dialogues of the Sea Gods are a collection of brief dialogues between famous figures in Greek myth that all have something to do with the sea, including Poseidon, Triton, the Nereids, the Winds and even the Cyclops. While they are cleverly written and amusing in their own right, these fifteen dialogues also have much to show us about the works of mythology that were popular in the second century AD, contemporary views on the many inconsistencies in Greek myth and those parts of the world where, despite being outside what we would consider ‘Greece’ in modern terms, Greek culture flourished under Roman rule. This volume considers the developments of literary Greek language, the relationship between Greek Drama, Epic and Bucolic poetry in Lucian’s time, and the discussions of myth by philosophical and moralistic writers that Lucian both uses to critique myths and parodies in their own right. This has much to tell us about the works that survived into Lucian’s time from the Classical period, including many that we now know only from fragmentary material, and their relative popularity. There is also detailed examination of the way that the interaction between Greek and non-Greek culture has influenced Lucian’s depiction of ‘Greek’ myths. ","""This new edition of Lucian's ""Dialogues of the Sea-Gods"" is the first to provide a thorough commentary on these charming little texts. Dr. Bartley not only elucidates the often manifold literary traditions on which Lucian has drawn, but also traces the often very marked connections of these texts with ancient works of art (mostly paintings on vases and walls) and demonstrates in which ways Lucian also makes ample use of the philosophical and rhetorical trends of his age (the Second Sophistic) to give these (mostly well-known) mythical stories new and additional depth. The reader of this commentary will come away with the distinct impression that Lucian not only knew to use his literary predecessors in ways both masterly and playful, but also found room to make a number of interesting innovations (new view-points, hitherto neglected details etc.). All in all, this commentary renders a great service both to its ancient subjects and to its modern readers."" — Professor Heinz-Günther Nesselrath, Geogr-August Universität, Göttingen, Germany ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009-10-01,José Maria Gutiérrez Arranz,The Cycle of Troy in Geoffrey Chaucer: Tradition and “Moralitee”,Hardback,978-1-4438-1307-5,34.99,"The aim of the author of this book is to bring home not only to researchers, but to every kind of audience the repercussions of a literary topic that was an essential part of Classical education and, even more, a crucial subject in and outside the academic world. In ancient Greece and Rome, the Cycle of Troy was viewed as an essential compilation of information and educational models which was a vivid testimony throughout the history of Greek and Roman influence. Yet in the middle Ages, Trojan myths, just as with those concerning other characters like Hercules or Jason, were transformed into models of human behaviour, i.e. underwent the process of “moralization”. We say “Moralitee” to point out how Geoffrey Chaucer recreates those myths. Although we will extensively discuss how Chaucer recreates the Trojan myths in his works, we can anticipate what the reader will find. Chaucer manipulates his material from a multifold point of view: first of all, Chaucer was a man of his times, an unquiet mind and personality who always plays different games with that material. We might consider heroic the fact that Chaucer would pour out on his work the great background that the European writers (mainly Boccaccio, Dante, and Petrarch) supplied him (we will remember how difficult collecting information was in a period of vast lack of what we might call “media”). Come what may, he projects his wisdom to stress the most surmounting aspects of the formal characterization of the myths, and integrates them into the proper contexts of his works, as one of the key forces that the audience is expected to revive with the knowledge that it is supposed to own. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009-10-01,Peter A. Dimitrov,Thracian Language and Greek and Thracian Epigraphy,Hardback,978-1-4438-1325-9,34.99,"Before one embarks upon reading Thracian Language and Greek and Thracian Epigraphy, one should keep in mind that one should be facing an extremely complex situation.There is a methodological problem, originating in the past, which caused various misunderstandings. It is due to the volume of different entries assembled in the goal to compose a thesaurus of the Thracian language. Somehow, over the years during the last two centuries, there was a whole set of methods applied that were not in accordance to the progress made by linguistics. For example, the choice made in assembling the two main corpora so far, that of Tomaschek and Detschew, present data from literary and epigraphic sources. These data combined were not at all times convincing. Sometimes controversial entries were included whose interpretation provoked long discussions. More attention was paid to details, which in most of the cases were not concerned with the discussion of the whole body of evidence. There was one other issue: whilst modern linguistics made a huge progress, Thracian scholars stayed within the general Indo-European theory of the Neogrammarians. The method the author used rests on the description of Thracian onomastics obtained after phonological analysis, because he is concerned with the fact that every single phonologically attested form of phonemes and morphs is relevant. For, it helps to list all possible forms of names thus showing all of the graphemes independently. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009-12-01,Adam Bartley,A Lucian for our Times,Hardback,978-1-4438-1433-1,39.99,"Lucian of Samosata, the prolific Greek-speaking satirist of the 2nd century AD, left us a wide range of works ranging from harsh invective against cult-leaders and philosophers to playful pastiche of Herodotus' Histories. Art and artists, teachers of rhetoric, inconsistent myths, parasites in rich households, authors seeking imperial patronage and the rich and powerful themselves all provide rich material for his wit and humour. In this volume the focus is not on the literary values of Lucian's works, but rather on what they show us about the intellectual, political, religious and everyday life of the Imperial period. The articles address themes such as the importance of Latin in the Greek-speaking eastern Empire, rituals of death and mourning, attitudes towards the lands beyond the empire and the role of politics in comedy and satire, both in Lucian's own time and in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. While Lucian's own distinctive personality is impossible to ignore, the picture that emerges is one of both the high intellectual life and everyday behaviour in this vibrant period in the history of the Mediterranean region. ","“Lucian is an author that is much read, but little appreciated and even less studied. Adam Bartley’s stimulating collection, A Lucian for our Times, is based on a conference held at the University of Kent in 2007. It provides solid evidence of why Lucian does deserve to be as studied as much as he is read. A Lucian for our Times offers a collection of articles that leads the reader widely through Lucian’s large extant corpus. The themes of this volume range from the traditional to the postmodern, from the philological to the linguistic, from sociology to religion, and from the art historical to the historiographical. The book itself is has three main emphases. It aims to place Lucian’s works within the contemporary literary culture; it aims also to place them within the dominant contemporary trends in philosophy, religion, and history; it aims as well to place Lucian within the milieu of the second century Second Sophistic. A Lucian for our Times brings its subject to life not just in its era, but for contemporary readers as well.” —Peter Toohey, University of Calgary ""There are essays here which will be valuable for scholars working on specific issues or for those who wish to keep up to date on Lucianic scholarship"" James Jope in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2010.05.26 ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009-12-01,Bruce C. Swaffield,Rising from the Ruins: Roman Antiquities in Neoclassic Literature,Hardback,978-1-4438-1400-3,34.99,"The neoclassic tendency to write about the ruins of Rome was both an attempt to recapture the grandeur of the “golden age” of man and a lament for the passing of a great civilization. John Dyer, who wrote The Ruins of Rome in 1740, was largely responsible for the eighteenth-century revival of a unique subgenre of landscape poetry dealing with ruins of the ancient world. Few poems about the ruins had been written since Antiquités de Rome in 1558 by Joachim Du Bellay. Dyer was one of first neoclassic poets to return to the decaying stones of a past society as a source of poetic inspiration and imagination. He views the relics as monuments of grandeur and greatness, but also of impending death and destruction. While following most of the rules and standards of neoclassicism—that of imitating nature and giving pleasure to a reader—Dyer also includes his personal reactions and emotions in The Ruins of Rome. The work is composed from the position of a poet who serves as interpreter and translator of the subject, a primary characteristic of “prospect” poetry in the eighteenth century. Numerous other writers quickly followed Dyer’s example, including George Keate, William Whitehead and William Parsons. The tendency by these poets to write about the ruins of Rome from a subjective point of view was one of the strongest themes in what Northrop Frye has called the “Age of Sensibility.” Although the renewed interest in Roman ruins lasted well into the nineteenth century, influencing Romantic poets from Lord Byron to William Wordsworth, the evolution of this type of verse was a gradual process: it originated with Du Bellay’s poem, continued through seventeenth-century paintings by Claude Lorrain and Salvator Rosa (along with the later art of Piranesi and Pannini), and reached maturity with the poetic interest in the imagination in the eighteenth century. All of these factors, especially the tendency of poets to record their subjective feelings and insights concerning the ruins, are elements that proved to be instrumental in the eventual development of Romanticism. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2010-02-01,Christopher Anthony Matthew,On the Wings of Eagles: The Reforms of Gaius Marius and the Creation of Rome’s First Professional Soldiers,Hardback,978-1-4438-1742-4,34.99,"Gaius Marius (157-86B) was one of the most innovative and influential commanders of antiquity. With Marius in command of its legions, Rome prevailed on the battlefields of North Africa and defeated a two-pronged invasion of the Italian peninsula by 300,000 migrating Germanic tribesmen. The reason for this success was a series of five ground-breaking reforms through which Marius dramatically altered the demographics, recruitment, training and operation of the Roman army. In effect, Marius’ reforms changed the Roman military from a service of short-term militia into a professional standing army. This allowed Rome to use the military as an effective tool for military expansion and internal security and laid the foundations for the role of the Roman army for centuries to come. Many of these reforms, however, came at a cost to the stability of the state. This book charts the military implications of Marius’ reforms: what they were, why they were made, how they were made, and how they altered the functionality of the Roman military. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2010-03-01,Robert D. Morritt,"The Quest: John Morritt, His Travels to Troy, 1794-1796",Hardback,978-1-4438-1774-5,34.99,"For many years I had wanted to write something about Troy and the Classical Age; ever since my earlier archaological 'digs' and flint knapping and an early essay on Troy, quite unplanned, that had my strict Headmaster quite aghast (and even myself). I expect it was something hidden within my psyche which knows a former life, I hesitate to go t here. Notwithstanding that, this book describes not just the story of 'Troy' but theories of whether it did exist, with recent archaeological 'finds'. The work done at Troy by Schliemann is portrayed, also the work of Dorpfeld, Blegen and more recently the modern methods of the recently deceased Professor Manfred Korfmann and the theories of Joachim Latacz are explored, with emphasis on the University of Tuebingen TROIA Project, which is consistently attracting international attention. Not only is Troy portrayed, but the travels of John Morritt to locate the site of Troy. The interesting way Morritt circumnavigated the Napoleonic armies makes one wonder if he was on a clandestine mission to record topography, as he later makes un-historical observations of military movements in an area the French navy were to invade to reach Egypt, etc. If the reader receives any benefit from this book, I will consider that I have done my part. If not, I recomend it wholeheartedly as a sure-fire cure for insomnia. Robert D. Morritt ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2010-07-01,"Shane Borrowman, Robert L. Lively and Marcia Kmetz",Rhetoric in the Rest of the West,Hardback,978-1-4438-2164-3,39.99,"While the study of the history of rhetoric has expanded to include an ever-growing range of rhetorical traditions, lesser-known figures, and under- and un-studied texts, it has continued to exist in the hermetically sealed binary of West and Rest. Rhetorical scholars have begun uncovering the many marginalized rhetorical traditions silenced by the homogenous nature of our histories themselves, reading and writing new histories of the rhetorical tradition through frames from gender to geography. Despite these substantial challenges to the traditionally received history of rhetoric, many voices are still silenced and many spaces are still excluded—voices speaking within the spaces of the less-than-monolithic West itself. This silencing and excluding continues, perhaps, because of assumptions that no texts exist from these marginalized voices or that substantial rhetorical activity was not conducted in these marginalized spaces—regardless of already extant evidence of rhetorical activity as diverse as rural civic ethos in Classical Greece and Etruscan influences on Roman rhetoric or long-standing passive knowledge of scholarly activity in Medieval Andalusia and Ireland. Rhetoric in the Rest of the West attempts to expand the conversation in those gaps in the history of rhetoric by examining the traditions that lost the cultural competition and have been shrouded in the shadow of the rhetorical tradition. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2010-10-01,Lydia Langerwerf and Cressida Ryan,"Zero to Hero, Hero to Zero: In Search of the Classical Hero",Hardback,978-1-4438-2391-3,39.99,"Hercules is a hero; we were all brought up to appreciate the basic idea of the ancient hero. But what about him makes him one? This book aims to challenge some of the standard expectations as to what constitutes a hero, considering the phenomenon of heroism from a range of viewpoints. In this book we invite you to walk around the monumental notions of the hero and heroism, and endeavour to reach out and touch them on all sides. The chapters in this volume testify to the difficulty of answering the question ‘what is a hero?’ and engage with a variety of themes in attempting to offer some replies. They demonstrate not just the variety of ways in which the protagonists of ancient literature can be deemed heroic, but also the tendency for aspects of heroism to turn sour once identified. It seems that the moment we recognise heroic features, we are forced to question them. Do heroes necessitate anti-heroes, for example? Portraying protagonists’ heroic qualities in an ambigous light focuses the reader’s attention on the problem of realising the ideals of heroism in historic actuality. Various chapters ask the rhetorical question of whether we should expect, or more importantly, desire historical actors to behave like mythical heroes. To what extent can a hero ever be integrated into normal society? What difference might there be between a tragic and an epic hero? The commonplace ‘The only good hero is a dead hero’ summarises the extent to which this book also focuses on heroic death and dying. Covering Euripides to Monty Python, Roman soldiers to the modern military, this volume offers the reader a chance to think about the changing notion of the hero and recognise heroic qualities throughout western culture. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2010-11-01,Antonis K. Petrides and Sophia Papaioannou,New Perspectives on Postclassical Comedy,Hardback,978-1-4438-2411-8,39.99,"PIERIDES II, Series Editors: Philip Hardie and Stratis Kyriakidis The re-emergence of Menander from the landfills of Egypt in the late-19th century and the subsequent discovery of the Bodmer Codex in the 1950s caused a sensation among scholars. After a period in which the primary editing and reconstruction of the substantially preserved plays and fragments was the main line of criticism, scholars were finally in a position to take a deep breath and look at Menander and New Comedy, both Greek and Roman, in wider contexts of interpretation and with fresh perspectives drawn from innovative work both in Classical and more modern studies. This book aims to showcase these new approaches to postclassical comedy. The individual contributions, six in total, approach New Comedy as theatrical performance, but also as a dynamic player in the socio-political discourses of the polis culture that gave birth to it. The chapters highlight continuities as well as discontinuities with the cultural and literary past of Athens and the Greek world, but mostly emphasise the progressiveness of New Comedy as a genre and its importance for the nascent culture of Hellenism and Rome thereafter. Blume’s introductory chapter tells the story of Menander’s re-emergence from the tenebrae in full detail. The other five chapters are dual in nature: expositional of a method, but also practical examples of it. They are arranged in a fashion which underlines the major theoretical underpinnings of New Comedy studies, as they are being developed in the present: Cultural Studies (David Konstan and Susan Lape), Intertextuality and Performance (Antonis K. Petrides and Rosanna Omitowoju), and Reception in Rome (Sophia Papaioannou). ","This impressive, well-documented essay is worth alone the price of the book for a wide variety of scholarly readers or their libraries. Richard F Hardin The University of Kansas 2011 ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-01-01,Robert D. Luginbill,Author of Illusions: Thucydides’ Rewriting of the History of the Peloponnesian War,Hardback,978-1-4438-2649-5,39.99,"Pericles, famed general and foremost political leader of Athens during her glory days of the 5th century, brought about the downfall of the Athenian empire almost single-handedly. This truth, obvious to contemporary Greeks, is today not generally understood, and we have Thucydides and his History of the Peloponnesian War to thank for the confusion. That Thucydides, a fierce partisan of Pericles and a soldier exiled for his own military misadventures, should wish to reinvent the history of that famous war to show himself and Pericles in a more favorable light is understandable. But how could one man with a single literary production manage to replace the reality of the war with a myth of his own making, creating in the process an edifice of illusion that would last for millennia, scarcely questioned even by scholars? The answer lies in Thucydides’ ability to engage the reader’s mind and emotions with his psychological motifs. By promising to peel back the superficial layers of contemporary descriptions of the war and reveal the true ‘mysteries’ of history, Thucydides draws in his readers and persuades them to accept his overall thesis of Pericles’ innocence. Author of Illusions examines Thucydides’ techniques and demonstrates just how it was that he was able to reinterpret the history of the Peloponnesian War so successfully for his own and for Pericles’ benefit. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-02-01,Alison Keith,Latin Elegy and Hellenistic Epigram: A Tale of Two Genres at Rome,Hardback,978-1-4438-2678-5,34.99,"The relationship between the genres of elegy and epigram has been much debated and from a dizzying variety of angles. The contributors to this volume explore the impact of Hellenistic Greek epigram on Latin erotic elegy in the light of the recent discovery and publication of papyrus book-rolls, especially those containing Hellenistic Greek epigram collections. Individual chapters approach the interrelations of Greek epigram and Latin elegy through the theoretical frameworks of intermediality (the contamination of the two different media of stone inscription and book roll) and textual criticism (applying to the Latin elegist Propertius the editorial lessons learned from the papyrus collections of Greek epigrams). Some chapters focus on the reception of specific Greek epigrams, particularly those of Meleager and Philodemus, in particular elegies of Propertius and Ovid, while others take the Latin elegists as their focus and examine their appropriation of both the thematic motifs of Greek epigram and the organizational structures of Hellenistic epigram books. All bear witness to the importance of Hellenistic Greek epigram to the authors of Latin erotic elegy, consolidate our understanding of the formal relations between the two genres in the Hellenistic and Roman worlds, and deepen our appreciation of individual Greek epigrams and Latin elegies. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-03-01,Robert D. Morritt,An Analysis of Antient Mythology MDCCCVI by Jacob Bryant,Hardback,978-1-4438-2698-3,39.99,"Jacob Bryant (1715–1804) was an eminent scholar and mythographer, who has been described as “the outstanding figure among the mythagogues who flourished in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.” His work, An analysis of Antient(sic) Mythology, has been regarded as one of the most in-depth Classical works on Ancient Greece and contemporary areas within the ancient world. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-03-01,David Hernández de la Fuente,New Perspectives on Late Antiquity,Hardback,978-1-4438-2718-8,54.99,"Perhaps it is fully justified to think of Late Antiquity (3rd–7th centuries) as the first Renaissance of the Classical World. This period can be considered a fundamental landmark for the transmission of the Classical Legacy and the transition between the ancient and the medieval individual. During Late Antiquity the Classical Education or enkyklios paideia of Hellenism was linked definitively to the Judeo-Christian and Germanic elements that have modelled the Western World. The present volume combines diverse interests and methodologies with a single purpose—unity and diversity, as a Neo-Platonic motto—providing an overall picture of the new means of researching Late Antiquity. This collective endeavour, stemming from the 2009 1st International Congress on Late Antiquity in Segovia (Spain), focuses not only on the analysis of new materials and latest findings, but rather puts together different perspectives offering a scientific update and a dialogue between several disciplines. New Perspectives on Late Antiquity contains two main sections—1. Ancient History and Archaeology, and 2. Philosophy and Classical Studies—including both overview papers and case studies. Among the contributors to this volume are some of the most relevant scholars in their fields, including P. Brown, J. Alvar, P. Barceló, C. Codoñer, F. Fronterotta, D. Gigli, F. Lisi and R. Sanz. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-03-01,"Jessica L. Wilkinson, Eric Parisot and David McInnis",Refashioning Myth: Poetic Transformations and Metamorphoses,Hardback,978-1-4438-2722-5,44.99,"Robert Graves tells us that “the poet’s first enrichment is a knowledge and understanding of myths.” Certainly, as this collection of essays, poems and visual images affirms, mythology has been a field richly mined by poets and artists from antiquity through to the present day. It is testament to both the enduring power of myth, as well as the adaptability of its form, that poets and writers continually turn to the mythic for both inspiration and guidance. This volume presents a diverse collection of analytical and creative works by scholars, poets and visual artists, in response to their varied explorations of the prolific dialogue that exists between myth and poetry. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-05-01,Paul Douglass,"T. S. Eliot, Dante, and the Idea of Europe",Hardback,978-1-4438-2878-9,39.99,"T. S. Eliot greatly enhanced Dante's profound influence on European literature. The essays in this volume explore Dante's importance through a focus on Eliot. Probing the questions what Eliot made of Dante, and what Dante meant to Eliot, the essays here assess the legacy of modernism by engaging its ""classicist"" roots, covering a wide spectrum of topics stemming from Dante's relevance to the poetry and criticism of Eliot. The essays reflect on Eliot's aesthetic, philosophical, and religious convictions in relation to Dante, his influence upon literary modernism through his embracing and championing of the Florentine, and his desire to promote European unity. The first section of the book deals with aesthetic and philosophical issues related to Eliot's engagement with Dante, beginning with Jewel Spears Brooker's masterful essay on the concepts of immediate experience and primary consciousness in Eliot's work, and moving on to essays considering his idea of a ""unified sensibility,"" as well as Eliot's engagement with Hindu-Buddhist and Christian themes and motifs. The second part of the book focuses on Dante's importance to Eliot's founding work in the modernist movement. In what ways did Dante directly and indirectly influence the exemplary path that Eliot blazed for his contemporaries, especially Ezra Pound? How early did Dante's influence show itself in Eliot's work? Why was he unable to complete the great trilogy he seems to have sought to write, based on Dante's Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso? These questions and their answers lead to the book's final section, which considers Eliot's (and Dante's) role in the formation of a twentieth-century concept of Europe. Incisive essays on Eliot's varied sources of ""tradition"" in his attempt to promote the idea of a European union and his anxiety over the heritage of Romanticism are capped by a magisterial contribution from Dominic Manganiello showing precisely how Eliot's reformulation of the Dantesque ""European Epic"" continues to influence the work of Anglo-European and Commonwealth writers. ","“A valuable and timely collection of essays that illuminates and deepens our understanding of Eliot’s lifelong creative debt to Dante, bringing an impressive array of texts and traditions—Eastern and Western, medieval and postmodern—to bear upon Dante’s dynamic, tutelary presence, not only in Eliot’s work, but in the innovations of modern literature throughout Europe and America. It is a great service to scholarship and teaching to bring together so many lucid and thoughtful essays by both established scholars and new voices. The essays collected here will enjoy a wide and continued readership.” —Anthony Cuda, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Author, The Passions of Modernism, Co-editor, The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot, Vol. 2 ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-06-01,"Janette McWilliam, Sonia Puttock, Tom Stevenson and Rashna Taraporewalla",The Statue of Zeus at Olympia: New Approaches,Hardback,978-1-4438-2921-2,39.99,"This book began to take shape following a conference on the Statue of Zeus at Olympia held at the University of Queensland in July 2008. In line with the main themes of the conference, the book has two fundamental aims: the first is to recognise the unsurpassed reputation of the Zeus in antiquity, to move beyond the framework provided by the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and to treat the famous statue in depth, as befits its unique importance in ancient times; the second aim is to employ a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives in the hope of capturing more accurately than before something of that unique importance. The book is aimed at academic specialists in a variety of disciplines (such as art, archaeology, history, literature, and cultural poetics), though it is also intended to be accessible to undergraduates and certainly to research students. The audience will primarily be one interested in classical antiquity, but there are chapters which trace the story and influence of the Zeus through the Byzantine, Renaissance, and early modern periods, and into more recent centuries in both the northern and southern hemispheres. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-08-01,"Renato Oniga, Rossella Iovino and Giuliana Giusti",Formal Linguistics and the Teaching of Latin: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives in Comparative Grammar,Hardback,978-1-4438-2988-5,49.99,"This volume offers a coherent collection of 26 papers presented at an international conference held in November 2010, exploring the latest achievements of formal and comparative linguistics applied to the teaching of Latin. The three sections (syntax and morphology, semantics and pragmatics, history and theory of teaching) compare Latin with different ancient and modern languages, aiming to represent grammar rules as the product of mental processes. The book is addressed to linguists, teachers and students, who are looking for new perspectives to update their approach to classical Latin. ","“Formal linguistics is more explicit and more precise than other types of grammar. Since it has access to more sophisticated tools of grammatical analysis, it tends to achieve more explanatory results, which in turn leads to a deeper level of understanding on the part of the student. The 26 papers in this volume are arranged into three sections covering morphology and syntax (with emphasis on word order), semantics and pragmatics, and the history and theory of teaching. Various ways of bridging the gap between formal linguistics and more traditional approaches are discussed, and the potential applications of formal linguistics in the classroom are explored. The goals of this volume are as practically important as they are theoretically desirable. Latin teachers everywhere will greatly benefit from this presentation of recent theoretical ideas.” — Andrew M. Devine, Professor of Classics, Stanford University, USA, Laurence D. Stephens, Adjunct Professor of Classics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA “This book presents a valuable contribution to the Linguistics of Latin not only in relation to Romance languages stemming from it, but also in relation to Classical Greek and other languages of Europe. Some articles connect their theoretical observations with a methodology for the formal teaching of Latin. The reflection on the grammatical structures of a language used to be one of the main, if not the most important tool to foreign language learning. Nowadays, however, this approach is generally abandoned in the teaching of modern languages. But it is still the center of classical language teaching, which however calls for an update on new theoretical approaches and the advances reached by recent studies. The greatest merit of this volume lies in its attempt to match theoretical reflections on the linguistic structures of Latin with methodological issues of teaching.” — Lorenzo Renzi, Professor of Romance Philology, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy, Vice-President of the Société de Linguistique Romane. ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-11-01,Filip Ivanović,Dionysius the Areopagite between Orthodoxy and Heresy,Hardback,978-1-4438-3348-6,34.99,"Dionysius the Areopagite between Orthodoxy and Heresy aims to explore the thought of one of the most controversial characters of Christian history, Dionysius the Areopagite, and put it in a correct context, between pagan (namely Neoplatonic) philosophy on the one side, and Christian theology, on the other. In significant part, the book examines Dionysius’ Neoplatonic sources, but it also offers insights into the original points of his philosophy and theology, thus showing how he managed to achieve a masterful integration of pagan thought and newly revealed faith. The chapters of the book, taken together, try to offer a broad insight into the Areopagite’s thought, through examining not just his intellectual background and milieu, but also some of the crucial features of his work, such as notions of hierarchy, deification, apophatic and cataphatic theologies, icon, and others. This work is of a multidisciplinary character, since Dionysius’ thought has been studied from different points of view, so the contributions range from philosophy and theology to history and art history. Dionysius the Areopagite between Orthodoxy and Heresy is intended for both specialists and non-specialists. Apart from being a collection of specific studies, it can also serve as an introduction to the Areopagite’s thought, and will be useful to all those interested in late antique and early Christian philosophy and theology, patristics, and cultural studies in general. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2012-01-01,"Diana Glenn, Md Rezaul Haque, Ben Kooyman and Nena Bierbaum",The Shadow of the Precursor,Hardback,978-1-4438-3461-2,44.99,"A shadow, in its most literal sense, is the projection of a silhouette against a surface and the obstruction of direct light from hitting that surface. For writers and artists, the shadows cast by their precursors can be either a welcome influence, one consciously evoked in textual production via homage or bricolage, or can manifest as an intrusive, haunting, prohibitive presence, one which threatens to engulf the successor. Many writers and artists are affected by an anxious and ambiguous relationship with their precursors, while others are energised by this relationship. The role that intertextuality plays in creative production invites interrogation, and this publication explores a range of conscious and unconscious influences informing relations between texts and contexts, between predecessors and successors. The chapters revolve around intertextual influence, ranging from conscious imitation and intentional allusion to Julia Kristeva’s idea of intertextuality. Do all texts contain references to and even quotations from other texts? Do such references help shape how we read? This multidisciplinary work includes chapters on the long shadows cast by Shakespeare, Dante, Scott, Virgil and Ovid, the shadows of colonial precursors on postcolonial successors, the shadows cast over Kipling and Murdoch, and chapters on other writers, dramatists and filmmakers and their relationships with precursor figures. With its focus on intertextual relationships, this book contributes to the thriving fields of adaptation studies and studies of intertextuality. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2012-04-01,Stephen Hodkinson and Dick Geary,Slaves and Religions in Graeco-Roman Antiquity and Modern Brazil,Hardback,978-1-4438-3736-1,44.99,"Slaves have never been mere passive victims of slavery. Typically, they have responded with ingenuity to their violent separation from their native societies, using a variety of strategies to create new social networks and cultures. Religion has been a major arena for such slave cultural strategies. Through participation in religious and ritual activities, slaves have generated important elements of identity, shared humanity, and even resistance, within their lives. This volume presents selected papers from a conference organised by the University of Nottingham’s Institute for the Study of Slavery—the only UK research centre to cover the comparative study of slavery from antiquity to the present. The volume breaks new ground by bringing into juxtaposition slave religious activities in Graeco-Roman antiquity and in modern Brazil: societies where slaves performed a similar range of economic functions but under very different religious systems. After a wide-ranging historiographical introduction, eleven international experts discuss diverse aspects of slaves’ engagement in religion. The volume sheds new light on slaves’ religious behaviour—especially on the neglected subject of Graeco-Roman slave religiosity. In both societies slave participation, alongside free persons, in religious institutions beyond their masters’ households involved certain constraints but provided distinctive opportunities for personal agency. ","“Comparisons sharpen the mind for similarities and differences that otherwise might escape attention. That is why it was a excellent idea of the editors of these collected essays to study the relationship between slaves and religion in two very different societies. The ancient world of Greece and Rome was geographically, politically and religiously a far cry from that of Modern Brazil. Yet the two worlds had one thing in common: both were slave societies. Although there have been studies of slavery and religion in Greece and Rome, none of the recent handbooks and studies of Greek and Roman religion shows much interest in the religious world of the slaves. This is different regarding Modern Brazil where the plurality of religions is nearly overwhelming in the case of slaves and often studied. It is the unusual and unique juxtaposition of these two cultures that gives this book a special importance. Looking at Modern Brazil, one realises that the origin of the slaves was so much less important in shaping the religious world of Greek and Roman slaves. Looking at Greece and Rome, one suddenly sees the importance of the connection between religion and manumission. In both worlds, though, the most important feature that arises from this book is the shift from studying slavery as an institution in connection with religion to focusing on the agency of slaves in determining their own religious worlds in order to create space for their religious and social needs. Religion offered possibilities outside the political and public sphere to interact with free and freed persons on a more egalitarian level and its pluralism could suit all kinds of personal preferences. Thus this book is an important contribution to a deeper insight into the operation of both slavery and religion.” —Jan N. Bremmer, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen, Netherlands “The essays in this book highlight the significant role of religion for the enslaved. The chapters focusing on modern slavery pay particular attention to the role of African religions in the lives of the slaves as well as how those religions were transformed in the New World. Focusing on Brazil, these essays ably demonstrate the importance of religion for slave agency, for manumission and for resistance. This wide-ranging and innovative volume is a highly welcome addition to the literature.” —Gad Heuman, Emeritus Professor, Department of History, University of Warwick, Editor, Slavery and Abolition ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2012-05-01,José Manuel Losada Goya and Marta Guirao Ochoa,Myth and Subversion in the Contemporary Novel,Hardback,978-1-4438-3746-0,54.99,"This bilingual work aims to identify and explain the subversive rewriting of ancient, medieval and modern myths in contemporary novels. The book opens with two theoretical essays on the subject of subversive tendencies and myth reinvention in the contemporary novel. From there, it moves on to the analysis of essential texts. Firstly, classical myths in works by authors such as André Gide, Thomas Pynchon, Julio Cortázar, Italo Calvino or Christa Wolf (for instance, Theseus, Oedipus or Medea) are discussed. Then, myths of biblical origin – such as the Flood or the Golem – are revisited in the work of Giorgio Bassani, Julian Barnes and Cynthia Ozick. A further section is concerned with the place of modern myths (Faust, the ghost, Ophelia…) in the fiction of Günter Grass, Paul Auster, or Clara Janés. The contributors have also delved into the relationship between myth and art – especially in the discourse of contemporary advertising, painting and cinema – and myth’s intercultural dimensions: hybridity in the Latin American novels of Augusto Roa Bastos and Carlos Fuentes, and in the Hindu-themed novels of Bharati Mukherjee. This volume emerges from the careful selection of 37 essays out of over 200 which were put forward by outstanding scholars from 25 different countries for the Madrid International Conference on Myth and Subversion (March 2011). Este volumen bilingüe identifica y explica la práctica subversiva aplicada a los mitos antiguos, medievales y modernos en la novela contemporánea. Abren el libro dos estudios teóricos sobre la tendencia subversiva y la reinvención de mitos en la actualidad. Prosigue el análisis de diversos textos de primera importancia. En primer lugar se revisan los mitos clásicos en autores como André Gide, Thomas Pynchon, Julio Cortázar, Italo Calvino o Christa Wolf (p. ej., Teseo, Edipo, Medea). En segundo lugar, la reescritura de los mitos bíblicos según Giorgio Bassani, Julian Barnes o Cynthia Ozick (p. ej., el diluvio o el Golem). En tercer lugar, mitos modernos en la ficción de Günter Grass, Paul Auster o Clara Janés (p. ej., Fausto, el fantasma, Ofelia). El volumen presta igualmente atención a las relaciones entre mito y arte (su recurrencia en la publicidad, la pintura y el cine contemporáneos) y a la vertiente intercultural de los mitos: el mestizaje en la novela latinoamericana de Augusto Roa Bastos y Carlos Fuentes, o en la de temática hindú de Bharati Mukherjee. La compilación resulta de una exquisita selección de 37 textos entre los más de 200 propuestos para el Congreso Internacional Mito y Subversión (Madrid, marzo de 2011) por investigadores de prestigio procedentes de 25 países. ","“Subversion appears to be the very condition for the freedom of human mind. Consequently, subversion refashions mythical narratives, their structures and ideologies. Deconstruction and demystification of myths, particularly in contemporary novels, both call for a reinvented myth criticism, a noble task completed with great mastery in this thoroughly researched volume, with 36 essays in English and in Spanish.” – Metka Zupančič, Professor of French/Modern Languages, Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, USA “He leído con mucho interés el volumen Myth and Subversion in the Contemporary Novel y sostengo calurosamente el proyecto de su publicación en su editorial. El libro posee una estructura unitaria y una división clara y convincente. Es preciso alabar la variedad geográfica y metodológica del volumen, tanto por su perspectiva multiculturalista como por sus acercamientos deconstruccionistas, postcoloniales, polifónicos, feministas y mitopoéticos. Por todos estos motivos reitero mi apoyo a la oportunidad y la necesidad de la publicación de este libro.” – Dr Víctor Ivanovici, Profesor Asociado, de Literatura Hispánica, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Aristóteles de Salónica, Grecia ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2012-07-01,Alfredo Marcos,Postmodern Aristotle,Hardback,978-1-4438-3968-6,34.99,"The modern world was in part born as a reaction against Aristotelianism. However, the image of Aristotle to which modern philosophers reacted was partial, to say the least. Paradoxical though it may seem, today, twenty-three centuries on, we may now be in the most advantageous position for understanding the Stagirite’s philosophy and applying it to contemporary problems. The present book contributes to the forming of an idea of Post-modern reason inspired in a constellation of Aristotelian concepts, such as prudence (phronesis), practical truth (aletheia praktike), science in act (episteme en energeiai), metaphor (metaphora), similarity (homoiosis) and the imitation-creation pair (mimesis-poiesis). They all form an interconnected network and together they make up an idea of reason that may prove suitable for the present. These concepts offer the most promising basis for undertaking a series of urgent reconciliations: of facts and values, of means and ends, of theoretical and practical reason, of intelligence and emotion. Aristotle’s notions could help solve many dualisms of modern times. He offers a third way between identity and difference in ontology and politics, between algorithm and anarchism in methodology, between naïf realism and plain relativism in epistemology, between equivocity and univocity in language, between Enlightenment and Romanticism in culture... On the way, this shift facilitates the relationships between science, arts and ethics -the three parts of the sphere of culture which Modernity had separated-, as well as the integration of the sphere of culture itself with the world of life. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2012-07-01,"Saija Isomaa, Sari Kivistö, Pirjo Lyytikäinen, Sanna Nyqvist, Merja Polvinen and Riikka Rossi",Rethinking Mimesis: Concepts and Practices of Literary Representation,Hardback,978-1-4438-3901-3,44.99,"Literary mimesis is an age-old concept which has been variously interpreted and at times highly contested, and which has recently been brought back to the forefront of scholarly interest. The debate around mimesis has been reactivated by approaches that re-evaluate its meaning both in the ancient texts in which it first appeared, and in the contemporary discussions of the power of literary representation. This volume presents a selection of central contributions to both the theoretical debate on mimesis and to its up-to-date critical practice. This volume approaches mimesis by emphasising the principles of knowledge, understanding and imagination that have been associated with mimesis since Aristotle’s Poetics. The articles consider the various aspects of the concept throughout history, and explore the ways in which literature produces its peculiar reality effects and negotiates its relationship to value systems connecting it to the world of everyday experience and ethics, as well as to different ideologies, emotions, world views and fields of knowledge. Building on this rich theoretical background, the articles examine the limits and possibilities of mimesis through detailed textual analyses that present acute challenges to our current understanding of literary representation. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2012-07-01,Matthew Gumpert,The End of Meaning: Studies in Catastrophe,Hardback,978-1-4438-3915-0,54.99,"The specter of the apocalypse has always been a semiotic proposition: only at the end of all things, we are told, is their meaning laid bare. Our long-standing romance with catastrophe is inseparable from the Western hermeneutical tradition: our search for an elusive truth, one that can only be uncovered through the work of interpretation. Catastrophe terrifies and tantalizes to the extent it promises an end to this task. 9/11 is this book’s beginning, but not its end. Here was the apocalypse America had long been waiting for. The American dream: the fantasy--or nightmare--of fashioning meaning anew, upon some pristine tabula rasa or ground zero wiped clean by cataclysm. But the real lesson of 9/11 may be that catastrophe is the purest form of the event itself; every event is an infinitesimal catastrophe: or the sign of catastrophe to come. From the poetry of classical Greece to the popular culture of contemporary America, The End of Meaning seeks to show that catastrophe, precisely as the notion of the sui generis, has always been generic. This is not a book on the great catastrophes of the West; it offers no canon of catastrophe, no history of the catastrophic; to single out catastrophe, thus, as the exceptional, or the monstrous, or the modern, runs contrary to the essential proposition underlying the essays in this collection: that meaning itself is catastrophic. ","“The catastrophe is everywhere,"" writes Professor Gumpert , and this marvelous book, with its breathtaking array of subjects ranging from Homer's Iliad to Angels in America, belongs among a growing number of works arguing for a new, post-modern notion of catastrophe as the rule rather than the exception, not only of art and literature, but of life itself. As a comparatist, a classicist, and a semiotician, Gumpert's close rhetorical analyses of his many subjects are at once detailed, intricate, fresh and authoritative.” —Paul Gordon, Professor, Humanities/Comparative Literature, University of Colorado, Boulder ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing