Nearly all of us have studied poetry and been taught to look for
the symbolic as well as literal meaning of the text. Is this the
way the ancients saw poetry? In "Birth of the Symbol," Peter Struck
explores the ancient Greek literary critics and theorists who
invented the idea of the poetic symbol.
The book notes that Aristotle and his followers did not discuss
the use of poetic symbolism. Rather, a different group of Greek
thinkers--the allegorists--were the first to develop the notion.
Struck extensively revisits the work of the great allegorists,
which has been underappreciated. He links their interest in
symbolism to the importance of divination and magic in ancient
times, and he demonstrates how important symbolism became when they
thought about religion and philosophy. They see the whole of great
poetic language as deeply figurative, he writes, with the potential
always, even in the most mundane details, to be freighted with
hidden messages.
"Birth of the Symbol" offers a new understanding of the role of
poetry in the life of ideas in ancient Greece. Moreover, it
demonstrates a connection between the way we understand poetry and
the way it was understood by important thinkers in ancient
times.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!