Modern Literary Theory and Ancient Texts

386 PHOENIX inscriptions. So,while thisbook isdifferent in itsfocusand isnot nearlyas inclusiveas an old standbylikeBuck, the readingsand bibliographyforthe textsitoffersaremore up-to-date and come with fine translations and notes; itwill be a very welcome addition to every Greek Dialects course. The selections of literary texts, more thanthirty, arearranged partly bygenre (epic,Ionic elegyand iambus, Aeolic monody,Doric chorus,lyric monody) and partly by chronology: the classical world (Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides, Herodotus, Hippocratic corpus, Thucydides,Xenophon), hellenisticpoetry(Theocritus, Callimachus), post-classicalprose (Septuagint,Polybius,New Testament, Lucian, Galen). Students should find most of thesereadingsquite entertaining(e.g.,Hector beforehis duelwithAchilles in theIliad, theCologne epode of Archilochus, Semonides onwomen,Thucydides on thedebate over Mytilene, Lucian's fraudulent professor and his tips on duping an audience, etc.). In spite of this, it seems to me that this section is perhaps not as well-suited to the format of the book as are the others. These literary texts and good commentaries on them are readily available elsewhere. Furthermore, the text selections are short (one does not form a strong opinion of Aeschylean language from twenty-four lines of the Agamemnon), and there are important omissions; philosophy and oratory, genres that greatly influenced the Greek language, and figures as significant as Sophocles and Menander, are absent from the book. Studentsmight findituseful to read the literary textsinColvin with thepassages on literary languagesinL. R. Palmers The Greek Language (London 1980). All of the literary texts are also translated, and the translations are all quite good (though I am not sure what to make of an Archilochus who kvetches "Oy veh!" over the fickle Neobule). The commentaryismainly linguistic with a focusonmorphology and phonology, but there are also acute comments on syntax and style. The bibliography in this and the previous sections is highly selective, as fits the aim of the book, and well chosen. Finally, I wonder if the organization of the book tends sometimes to obscure the historical intent behind this Historical Reader. That is to say, the arrangement of sample texts into dialect groups and into literary genres tends to direct the reader's attention to other concerns. Perhaps that is inevitable, but a short final chapter or even a section at the end of the grammatical introduction that focused on some conclusions one can form about thehistory of the Greek language would have tied itall together nicelyforthereader. Be that as itmay, I know of no other book that combines a Greek historical grammar with a reader of dialect and literary texts, translations, and commentaries between two covers. Itwill be a very useful addition to all classics libraries. Carleton University Shane Hawkins Modern Literary Theory and Ancient Texts: An Introduction. By Thomas A. Schmitz. Oxford: Blackwell. 2007. Pp. x, 241. This volume, a translation of Modeme Literaturtheorie und antike Texte originally published in2002, grewout of classes taughtin literary theoryin 1997 and 1999/2000 at Kiel and Frankfurt Universities. Retaining its pedagogical aspirations, its aim is "to provide a first encounter with the most important ideas and concepts of the main theoretical approaches, thus enabling readers to pursue their forays into this territory independently" (1). Schmitz tellsreadersthat,afterreadingit,they"shouldnow considerall the theories they have encountered their own possession and have the courage to think for themselves: BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 387 maybe they can take a concept from here and a question from there tomake a poem speak to themina novelway anddetectaspects they had notperceivedbefore"(208).The book iswritten in a clear style and should be very accessible to students of moderate intellectual ambition in first-year undergraduate courses. The book has more or less the same format and content as the "Introduction to Literary Theory" course that was compulsory in my M.A. year in the program of comparative literature at the University of Toronto, though it ismuch simpler in tone and occasionallyavoids crucial (butdifficult) details.There are twelvechapters,covering(in order): Russian Formalism, Structuralism, Narratology, Bakhtin, Intertextuality, Reader Response Criticism, "Orality-Literacy," Deconstruction, Michel Foucault and Discourse Analysis, New Historicism, Feminist Approaches/Gender Studies, and "Psychoanalytic Approaches." Most chapters offer clear and accurate summaries: Schmitz's innovation is tobriefly exploretheirusefulnessin readingclassical texts. This lastelementestablishes thebook's importance:thisisan "IntroductiontoLiterary Theory" geared specifically to the study

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