In Search of the Classic: Reconsidering the Greco-Roman Tradition, Homer to Valéry and Beyond

Shankman, Steven

ISBN 10: 0271013230 / ISBN 13: 9780271013237

Published by Penn State University Press, University Park, 1994

About this Item

Inscribe by the author on the half-title page. A nice, crisp copy. ; 6 X 1 X 9 inches; 331 pages; Signed by Author.

Seller Inventory # 318701

Bibliographic Details

• Title: In Search of the Classic: Reconsidering the Greco-Roman Tradition, Homer to Valéry and Beyond
• Publisher: Penn State University Press, University Park
• Publication Date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0271013230
• ISBN 13: 9780271013237
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Very Good
• Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literary Criticism/Literary History/Lit.Theory

About this title

Synopsis

The "classical," Steven Shankman argues, should not be confused with a particular historical period of Western antiquity, although it may owe its original articulation to the literary and philosophical explorations of ancient Greek authors. Shankman's book searches for and attempts to formulate the shape of the continuing presence&;as embodied in particular literary works mainly from Western antiquity and the neoclassical and modern periods&;of what the author calls a "classical" understanding of literature.

For Shankman, literature, defined from a classical perspective, is a coherent, compelling, and rationally defensible representation that resists being reduced either to the mere recording of material reality or to the bare exemplification of an abstract philosophical precept. He derives his definition largely from his reading of Greek literature from Homer through Plato, from the history of literary criticism, and from the Greco-Roman tradition in English, American, and French literature. Shankman reveals unsuspected yet convincing connections among authors of such widely disparate times and places. His idea of the "classic" that authorizes these connections is presented as normative, thus making possible the evaluation of literary works and, in turn, forthright discussion of what constitutes the "literary" as distinct from other kinds of discourse. Shankman's study runs counter to a strong tendency of contemporary criticism that argues precisely against any distinct category of the "literary." He offers a series of interpretations that cumulatively advance theoretical discussion by challenging scholars to rethink the critical paradigms of postmodernism.

At the center of the book is a discussion of the quintessentially classic Valéry poem Le Cimetière marin and the classic qualities it shares with Pindar's third Pythian ode, from which Valéry derives the epigraph for his poem.

About the Author

Steven Shankman is Professor of English and Classics at the University of Oregon and author of Pope's "Iliad": Homer in the Age of Passion (1983).