Motion in Classical Literature

Homer, Parmenides, Sophocles, Ovid, Seneca, Tacitus, Art

Dados Bibliográficos

ID24173630
AutoresG O Hutchinson (0000-0002-3306-1673, University of Oxford, autor correspondente)
Ano2020
Data de publicação2020-05-07
Open AccessNão
TipoBOOK
PeriódicoMotion in Classical Literature (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditoraOxford University PressOxford (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780198855620.001.0001
OpenAlexW4232277028
ISBN9780198855620
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas111

Ancient literature is full of people, gods, and animals in impressive motion. But while the importance of space has been realized recently, motion has had little attention, for all its prominence in literature, and its interest to ancient philosophy. Motion is bound up with decisions, emotions, character; its specific features are expressive. The book starts with motion in visual art: this leads to the characteristics of literary depiction. Literary works discussed are: Homer’s Iliad; Ovid’s Metamorphoses; Tacitus’ Annals; Sophocles’ Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus; Parmenides’ On Nature; Seneca’s Natural Questions. The two narrative poems here diverge rewardingly, as do philosophical poetry and prose; in the prose narrative, as in the philosophical poem, the absence of motion, and metaphorical motion, are important; the dramas scrutinize motion verbally and visually. Each discussion pursues the general roles of motion in a work, with detail on its language of motion; then passages are analysed closely, to show how much emerges when this aspect is scrutinized. A conclusion brings works and passages together. It considers the differences made by genre and by the time of writing. Among aspects of motion which emerge as important are speed, scale, shape of movement, motion and fixity, movement of one person and a group, motion willed and imposed, motion in images and unrealized possibilities. A companion website makes it easier to see passages and analyses together; it offers videos of readings to convey the vitality and subtlety with which motion is portrayed.

Aesthetics · Art · Character (mathematics) · Depiction · Literature · Motion (physics) · Movement (music) · Narrative · Natural (archaeology) · Poetry · Artificial Intelligence · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Computer Science · History · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Mathematics · Philosophy