The well-read muse
Subtitle: past and present in Callimachus and the Hellenistic poets
By: Peter Bing
Edition: Rev. ed.
Publisher: Michigan Classical Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Ann Arbor, MI
Language: eng
Number of pages: 163
ISBN-13: 9780979971303
Subjects: Criticism and interpretation; Hellenistic Greek poetry; History and criticism; Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.); History; Muses (Greek deities) in literature; Inspiration in literature
Description: "In this study, the author investigates the era in which the written work - the book - superseded the assumption of oral composition and performance. In this and other respects, as this study demonstrates, Hellenistic poets saw themselves as now being part of a new world, remote from the great genres and achievements of the earlier literary tradition. That sense of distance from the past gave authors freedom to experiment. At the same time, it incited them to view their poetic heritage as something deserving intense scholarly study. The author examines one fundamental result of this attitude, the Hellenistic tendency toward learned allusion, and what this meant to a period pursuing a different literary approach."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.