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The protagonists of the ancient novels wandered or were carried off
to distant lands, from Italy in the west to Persia in the east and
Ethiopia in the south; the authors themselves came, or pretended to
come, from remote places such as Aphrodisia and Phoenicia; and the
novelistic form had antecedents in a host of classical genres.
These intersections are explored in this volume. Papers in the
first section discuss "mapping the world in the novels." The second
part looks at the dialogical imagination, and the conversation
between fiction and history in the novels. Section 3 looks at the
way ancient fiction has been transmitted and received. Space, as
the locus of cultural interaction and exchange, is the topic of the
fourth part. The fifth and final section is devoted to character
and emotion, and how these are perceived or constructed in ancient
fiction. Overall, a rich picture is offered of the many spatial and
cultural dimensions in a variety of ancient fictional genres.
The protagonists of the ancient novels wandered or were carried off
to distant lands, from Italy in the west to Persia in the east and
Ethiopia in the south; the authors themselves came, or pretended to
come, from remote places such as Aphrodisia and Phoenicia; and the
novelistic form had antecedents in a host of classical genres.
These intersections are explored in this volume. Papers in the
first section discuss "mapping the world in the novels." The second
part looks at the dialogical imagination, and the conversation
between fiction and history in the novels. Section 3 looks at the
way ancient fiction has been transmitted and received. Space, as
the locus of cultural interaction and exchange, is the topic of the
fourth part. The fifth and final section is devoted to character
and emotion, and how these are perceived or constructed in ancient
fiction. Overall, a rich picture is offered of the many spatial and
cultural dimensions in a variety of ancient fictional genres.
Representation of myth in the novel, as a poetic, narrative and
aesthetic device, is one of the most illuminating issues in the
area of ancient religion, for such narratives investigate in
various ways fundamental problems that concern all human beings.
This volume brings together twenty contributions (six of them to a
Roundtable organized by Anton Bierl on myth), originally presented
at the Fourth International Conference on the Ancient novel (ICAN
IV) held in Lisbon in July 2008. Employing an interdisciplinary
approach and putting together different methodological tools
(intertextual, psychological, and anthropological), each offers a
illuminating investigation of mythical discourse as presented in
the text or texts under discussion. The collection as a whole
demonstrates the exemplary and transgressive significance of myth
and its metaphorical meaning in a genre that to some extent can be
considered a modernized and secular form of myth that focuses on
the quintessential question of love.
Representation of desiring subjects in the novel is one of the most
illuminating issues in the area of ancient gender and sexuality,
for such narratives subject societal norms to acute critique. This
volume brings together fourteen essays originally given as oral
presentations at the Fourth International Conference on the Ancient
Novel (ICAN IV), held in Lisbon in July 2008. Employing feminist
and psychoanalytic approaches, each offers a provocative
investigation of sexual subjectivity as presented in the text or
texts under discussion. The collection as a whole demonstrates the
gradual convergence of formerly distinct norms of gendered behavior
under pressure of emerging social realities.The editors of this
volume are all well-known scholars in the fields of ancient
narrative and/or ancient sexuality. Contributors include leading
experts in these fields and emerging scholars whose research
suggests directions for future exploration.
The study of the reception of the ancient novel and of its literary
and cultural heritage is one of the most appealing issues in the
story of this literary genre. In no other genre has the vitality of
classical tradition manifested itself in such a lasting and
versatile manner as in the novel. However, this unifying,
centripetal quality also worked in an opposite direction, spreading
to and contaminating future literatures. Over the centuries, from
Antiquity to the present time there have been many authors who drew
inspiration from the Greek and Roman novels or used them as models,
from Cervantes to Shakespeare, Sydney or Racine, not to mention the
profound influence these texts exercised on, for instance,
sixteenth-to eighteenth-century Italian, Portuguese and Spanish
literature. Volume I is divided into sections that follow a
chronological order, while Volume II deals with the reception of
the ancient novel in literature and art. The first volume brings
together an international group of scholars whose main aim is to
analyse the survival of the ancient novel in the ancient world and
in the Middle Ages, in the Renaissance, in the 17th and 18th
centuries, and in the modern era. The contributors to the second
volume have undertaken the task of discussing the survival of the
ancient novel in the visual arts, in literature and in the
performative arts. The papers assembled in these two volumes on
reception are at the forefront of scholarship in the field and will
stimulate scholarly research on the ancient novel and its influence
over the centuries up to modern times, thus enriching not only
Classics but also modern languages and literatures, cultural
history, literary theory and comparative literature.
Despite the fact that postmodern aesthetics deny the existence or
validity of genres, the tendency nowadays is to assume that there
was in Antiquity a homogeneous group of works of narrative prose
fiction that, despite their differences, displayed a series of
recurrent, iterative, thematic, and formal characteristics, which
allows us to label them novels. The papers assembled in this volume
include extended prose narratives of all kind and thereby widen and
enrich the scope of the canon. The essays explore a wide variety of
texts, crossed genres, and hybrid forms, which transgress the
boundaries of the so-called ancient novel, providing an excellent
insight into different kinds of narrative prose in antiquity.
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