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Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, Horace, and other authors of ancient Rome are
so firmly established in the Western canon today that the birth of
Latin literature seems inevitable. Yet, Denis Feeney boldly argues,
the beginnings of Latin literature were anything but inevitable.
The cultural flourishing that in time produced the Aeneid, the
Metamorphoses, and other Latin classics was one of the strangest
events in history. Beyond Greek traces the emergence of Latin
literature from 240 to 140 BCE, beginning with Roman stage
productions of plays that represented the first translations of
Greek literary texts into another language. From a modern
perspective, translating foreign-language literature into the
vernacular seems perfectly normal. But in an ancient Mediterranean
world made up of many multilingual societies with no equivalent to
the text-based literature of the Greeks, literary translation was
unusual if not unprecedented. Feeney shows how it allowed Romans to
systematically take over Greek forms of tragedy, comedy, and epic,
making them their own and giving birth to what has become known as
Latin literature. The growth of Latin literature coincides with a
period of dramatic change in Roman society. The powerful but
geographically confined Roman city-state of 320 BCE had conquered
all of Italy just fifty years later. By the time Rome became the
unquestioned dominant power in the Mediterranean over the course of
the next century, its citizens could boast of having a distinct
vernacular literature, as well as a historical tradition and
mythology, that put them in a unique relationship with Greek
culture.
A comparative history of the practices, technologies, institutions,
and people that created distinct literary traditions around the
world, from ancient to modern times Literature is such a familiar
and widespread form of imaginative expression today that its
existence can seem inevitable. But in fact very few languages ever
developed the full-fledged literary cultures we take for granted.
Challenging basic assumptions about literatures by uncovering both
the distinct and common factors that led to their improbable
invention, How Literatures Begin is a global, comparative history
of literary origins that spans the ancient and modern world and
stretches from Asia and Europe to Africa and the Americas. The book
brings together a group of leading literary historians to examine
the practices, technologies, institutions, and individuals that
created seventeen literary traditions: Chinese, Japanese, Korean,
Indian, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, English, Romance
languages, German, Russian, Latin American, African, African
American, and world literature. In these accessible accounts, which
are framed by general and section introductions and a conclusion by
the editors, literatures emerge as complex weaves of phenomena,
unique and deeply rooted in particular times and places but also
displaying surprising similarities. Again and again, new
literatures arise out of old, come into being through interactions
across national and linguistic borders, take inspiration from
translation and cultural cross-fertilization, and provide new ways
for groups to imagine themselves in relation to their moment in
history. Renewing our sense of wonder for the unlikely and strange
thing we call literature, How Literatures Begin offers fresh
opportunities for comparison between the individual traditions that
make up the rich mosaic of the world's literatures. The book is
organized in four sections, with seventeen literatures covered by
individual contributors: Part I: East and South Asia: Chinese
(Martin Kern), Japanese (Wiebke Denecke), Korean (Ksenia Chizhova),
and Indian (Sheldon Pollock); Part II: The Mediterranean: Greek
(Deborah Steiner), Latin (Joseph Farrell), Hebrew (Jacqueline
Vayntrub), Syriac (Alberto Rigolio), and Arabic (Gregor Schoeler);
Part III: European Vernaculars: English (Ingrid Nelson), Romance
languages (Simon Gaunt), German (Joel Lande), and Russian (Michael
Wachtel); Part IV: Modern Geographies: Latin American (Rolena
Adorno), African (Simon Gikandi), African American (Douglas Jones),
and world literature (Jane O. Newman).
A History Today Best Book of the Year A Choice Outstanding Academic
Title of the Year Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, Horace, and other authors
of ancient Rome are so firmly established in the Western canon
today that the birth of Latin literature seems inevitable. Yet,
Denis Feeney boldly argues, the beginnings of Latin literature were
anything but inevitable. The cultural flourishing that in time
produced the Aeneid, the Metamorphoses, and other Latin classics
was one of the strangest events in history. "Feeney is to be
congratulated on his willingness to put Roman literary history in a
big comparative context... It is a powerful testimony to the
importance of Denis Feeney's work that the old chestnuts of
classical literary history-how the Romans got themselves
Hellenized, and whether those jack-booted thugs felt anxiously
belated or smugly domineering in their appropriation of Greek
culture for their own purposes-feel fresh and urgent again." -Emily
Wilson, Times Literary Supplement "[Feeney's] bold theme and
vigorous writing render Beyond Greek of interest to anyone
intrigued by the history and literature of the classical world."
-The Economist
A comparative history of the practices, technologies, institutions,
and people that created distinct literary traditions around the
world, from ancient to modern times Literature is such a familiar
and widespread form of imaginative expression today that its
existence can seem inevitable. But in fact very few languages ever
developed the full-fledged literary cultures we take for granted.
Challenging basic assumptions about literatures by uncovering both
the distinct and common factors that led to their improbable
invention, How Literatures Begin is a global, comparative history
of literary origins that spans the ancient and modern world and
stretches from Asia and Europe to Africa and the Americas. The book
brings together a group of leading literary historians to examine
the practices, technologies, institutions, and individuals that
created seventeen literary traditions: Chinese, Japanese, Korean,
Indian, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, English, Romance
languages, German, Russian, Latin American, African, African
American, and world literature. In these accessible accounts, which
are framed by general and section introductions and a conclusion by
the editors, literatures emerge as complex weaves of phenomena,
unique and deeply rooted in particular times and places but also
displaying surprising similarities. Again and again, new
literatures arise out of old, come into being through interactions
across national and linguistic borders, take inspiration from
translation and cultural cross-fertilization, and provide new ways
for groups to imagine themselves in relation to their moment in
history. Renewing our sense of wonder for the unlikely and strange
thing we call literature, How Literatures Begin offers fresh
opportunities for comparison between the individual traditions that
make up the rich mosaic of the world's literatures. The book is
organized in four sections, with seventeen literatures covered by
individual contributors: Part I: East and South Asia: Chinese
(Martin Kern), Japanese (Wiebke Denecke), Korean (Ksenia Chizhova),
and Indian (Sheldon Pollock); Part II: The Mediterranean: Greek
(Deborah Steiner), Latin (Joseph Farrell), Hebrew (Jacqueline
Vayntrub), Syriac (Alberto Rigolio), and Arabic (Gregor Schoeler);
Part III: European Vernaculars: English (Ingrid Nelson), Romance
languages (Simon Gaunt), German (Joel Lande), and Russian (Michael
Wachtel); Part IV: Modern Geographies: Latin American (Rolena
Adorno), African (Simon Gikandi), African American (Douglas Jones),
and world literature (Jane O. Newman).
The ancient Romans changed more than the map of the world when they
conquered so much of it; they altered the way historical time
itself is marked and understood. In this brilliant, erudite, and
exhilarating book Denis Feeney investigates time and its contours
as described by the ancient Romans, first as Rome positioned itself
in relation to Greece and then as it exerted its influence as a
major world power. Feeney welcomes the reader into a world where
time was movable and changeable and where simply ascertaining a
date required a complex and often contentious cultural narrative.
In a style that is lucid, fluent, and graceful, he investigates the
pertinent systems, including the Roman calendar (which is still our
calendar) and its near perfect method of capturing the progress of
natural time; the annual rhythm of consular government; the
plotting of sacred time onto sacred space; the forging of
chronological links to the past; and, above all, the experience of
empire, by which the Romans meshed the city state's concept of time
with those of the foreigners they encountered to establish a new
worldwide web of time. Because this web of time was Greek before
the Romans transformed it, the book is also a remarkable study in
the cross-cultural interaction between the Greek and Roman worlds.
Feeney's skillful deployment of specialist material is engaging and
accessible and ranges from details of the time schemes used by
Greeks and Romans to accommodate the Romans' unprecedented rise to
world dominance to an edifying discussion of the fixed axis of
B.C./A.D., or B.C.E./C.E., and the supposedly objective "dates"
implied. He closely examines the most important of the ancient
world's time divisions, that between myth and history, and
concludes by demonstrating the impact of the reformed calendar on
the way the Romans conceived of time's recurrence. Feeney's
achievement is nothing less than the reconstruction of the Roman
conception of time, which has the additional effect of transforming
the way the way the reader inhabits and experiences time.
Denis Feeney is one of the most distinguished scholars of Latin
literature and Roman culture in the world of the last half-century.
These two volumes conveniently collect and present afresh all his
major papers, covering a wide range of topics and interests.
Ancient epic is a major focus, followed by Latin lyric,
historiography and elegy. Ancient literary criticism and the
technology of the book are recurrent themes. Many papers address
the problems of literary responses to religion and ritual, with an
interdisciplinary methodology drawing on comparative anthropology
and religion. The transition from Republic to Empire and the
emergence of the Augustan principate form the background to the
majority of the papers, and the question of how literary texts are
to be read in historical context is addressed throughout. All
quotations from ancient and modern languages have now been
translated and Stephen Hinds has contributed a foreword.
Denis Feeney is one of the most distinguished scholars of Latin
literature and Roman culture in the world of the last half-century.
These two volumes conveniently collect and present afresh all his
major papers, covering a wide range of topics and interests.
Ancient epic is a major focus, followed by Latin lyric,
historiography and elegy. Ancient literary criticism and the
technology of the book are recurrent themes. Many papers address
the problems of literary responses to religion and ritual, with an
interdisciplinary methodology drawing on comparative anthropology
and religion. The transition from Republic to Empire and the
emergence of the Augustan principate form the background to the
majority of the papers, and the question of how literary texts are
to be read in historical context is addressed throughout. All
quotations from ancient and modern languages have now been
translated and Stephen Hinds has contributed a foreword.
This book explores the whole range of the output of an
exceptionally versatile and innovative poet, from the Epodes to the
literary-critical Epistles. Distinguished scholars of diverse
background and interests introduce readers to a variety of critical
approaches to Horace and to Latin poetry. Close attention is paid
throughout to the actual text of Horace, with many of the chapters
focusing on reading a single poem. These close readings are then
situated in a number of different political, philosophical and
historical contexts. The book sheds light not only on Horace but on
the general problems confronting Latinists in the study of Augustan
poetry, and it will be of value to a wide range of upper-level
Latin students and scholars.
This collection of freshly commissioned essays covers the entire range of the works of an exceptionally versatile and innovative poet. The essays introduce readers to a variety of critical approaches to Horace and to Latin poetry, as well as a number of different contexts--political, philosophical, historical. The collection sheds light not only on Horace but on Augustan poetry in general.
This book exploits recent reevaluations of Roman religion in order to argue in favor of taking the religious dimensions of Roman literature seriously, as important cultural work in their own right. Instead of seeing Roman religious and literary activity as derivative and parasitic upon Greek originals, the book questions the romanticizing biases of classical studies, and argues for the power and creativity of the Romans in their engagements with Greek culture.
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