The birth of literary fiction in ancient Greece
Journal Data
| Type | SOURCE_BOOK |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Clarendon Press (GB) |
| ISBN-13 | 9780198150954 |
| Open Library | OL2737157W |
| Total publications | 6 |
| Coverage period | 1998 - 1998 |
| Language | EN |
| Cited by | 29 |
| h-index | 1 |
| i10-index | 1 |
The purpose of this study is to find out how and why the `poetics of fiction' arose, its sources, and the materials from which it was created. A series of cultural choices made in archaic and classical Greece produced a clash between the traditional `poetics of truth', which derived poetry from divine inspiration and in the last analysis did not construe the poem as a work of art at all, and the new `poetics of fiction', which derived poetry from art. The eventual succession of the latter, culminating with the Poetics of Aristotle, amounted to an aesthetic revolution because, as a result of it, literary fiction, which since then has become a necessary framework for both the theory and practice of literature in Western tradition, was for the first time separated from non-fiction and given a status of its own
‘Lies Resembling Truth’
In so far as the song is understood as a truthful account of events that really happened, and in so far as a catalogue-like sequence seems to be the form in which Homer conceived of a truthful account, any arrangement of events differing from the point-bypoint sequence would be precluded in the ‘poetics of truth’. At the same time, it is not difficult to discern that the lilad and the Odyssey themselves can hardly be envisaged as forming the poin…
Poetry Among Other Activities of Homeric Man
If we assemble all the manifestations of Homeric man -from physiological instincts to the higher forms of intellectual activity and take them, provisionally at least, as a corpus representative of the entire spectrum of Homeric man’s functioning, we shall see that the way in which poetry is treated in Homer is far from being peculiar to this activity alone. Thus, Homer’s poets sing either when ‘incited’ by the Muse, ‘moved’ by a god, or ‘stirred’…
Song and Artefact
Although we have seen that only the ‘poetics of truth’ was relevant to the traditional Greek view of poetry, this does not necessarily mean that the ‘poetics of fiction’ was altogether alien to the Greek tradition. The very fact that Homeric man, as our discussion has shown, was held to be either responsible or not responsible for his activities, makes the poetics of fiction possible. Whether or not this possibility would also be actualized depen…
The Song of the Muse
At the beginning of this book, I suggested that inspiration and art are conceptions of creativity which imply typologically different poetics: a ‘poetics of truth’ which construes its object as a message of reality and a means to an end, and a ‘poetics of fiction’ which construes its object as a reality sui generis and an end in itself. The analysis of poetry among other activities of Homeric man led to the conclusion that in Homer ‘singing’, tha…
Towards Fiction
Generally speaking, it is doubtful whether the traditional idiom of the Muses as attested in Homer and Hesiod can be fully applicable to the sort of poetry which flourished in the seventh and sixth centuries BC and which is conventionally labelled as ‘lyric’. We saw that the Muses of the epic tradition were essentially eyewitnesses of past events, who transferred their knowledge of these events to the poet and thus guaranteed the truthfulness of …
The Birth of Literary Fiction in Ancient Greece
The purpose of this study is to find out how and why the `poetics of fiction' arose, its sources, and the materials from which it was created. A series of cultural choices made in archaic and classical Greece produced a clash between the traditional `poetics of truth', which derived poetry from divine inspiration and in the last analysis did not construe the poem as a work of art at all, and the new `poetics of fiction', which derived poetry from…
The Birth of Literary Fiction in Ancient Greece
The purpose of this study is to find out how and why the `poetics of fiction' arose, its sources, and the materials from which it was created. A series of cultural choices made in archaic and classical Greece produced a clash between the traditional `poetics of truth', which derived poetry from divine inspiration and in the last analysis did not construe the poem as a work of art at all, and the new `poetics of fiction', which derived poetry from…
‘Lies Resembling Truth’
In so far as the song is understood as a truthful account of events that really happened, and in so far as a catalogue-like sequence seems to be the form in which Homer conceived of a truthful account, any arrangement of events differing from the point-bypoint sequence would be precluded in the ‘poetics of truth’. At the same time, it is not difficult to discern that the lilad and the Odyssey themselves can hardly be envisaged as forming the poin…
Poetry Among Other Activities of Homeric Man
If we assemble all the manifestations of Homeric man -from physiological instincts to the higher forms of intellectual activity and take them, provisionally at least, as a corpus representative of the entire spectrum of Homeric man’s functioning, we shall see that the way in which poetry is treated in Homer is far from being peculiar to this activity alone. Thus, Homer’s poets sing either when ‘incited’ by the Muse, ‘moved’ by a god, or ‘stirred’…
Song and Artefact
Although we have seen that only the ‘poetics of truth’ was relevant to the traditional Greek view of poetry, this does not necessarily mean that the ‘poetics of fiction’ was altogether alien to the Greek tradition. The very fact that Homeric man, as our discussion has shown, was held to be either responsible or not responsible for his activities, makes the poetics of fiction possible. Whether or not this possibility would also be actualized depen…
The Song of the Muse
At the beginning of this book, I suggested that inspiration and art are conceptions of creativity which imply typologically different poetics: a ‘poetics of truth’ which construes its object as a message of reality and a means to an end, and a ‘poetics of fiction’ which construes its object as a reality sui generis and an end in itself. The analysis of poetry among other activities of Homeric man led to the conclusion that in Homer ‘singing’, tha…
Towards Fiction
Generally speaking, it is doubtful whether the traditional idiom of the Muses as attested in Homer and Hesiod can be fully applicable to the sort of poetry which flourished in the seventh and sixth centuries BC and which is conventionally labelled as ‘lyric’. We saw that the Muses of the epic tradition were essentially eyewitnesses of past events, who transferred their knowledge of these events to the poet and thus guaranteed the truthfulness of …
The Birth of Literary Fiction in Ancient Greece
The purpose of this study is to find out how and why the `poetics of fiction' arose, its sources, and the materials from which it was created. A series of cultural choices made in archaic and classical Greece produced a clash between the traditional `poetics of truth', which derived poetry from divine inspiration and in the last analysis did not construe the poem as a work of art at all, and the new `poetics of fiction', which derived poetry from…