Authorship and Cultural Identity in Early Greece and China

Authorship and Cultural Identity in Early Greece and China
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages : 339
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781139484244
ISBN-13 : 1139484249
Rating : 4/5 (44 Downloads)

Synopsis Authorship and Cultural Identity in Early Greece and China by : Alexander Beecroft

In this book, Alexander Beecroft explores how the earliest poetry in Greece (Homeric epic and lyric) and China (the Canon of Songs) evolved from being local, oral, and anonymous to being textualised, interpreted, and circulated over increasingly wider areas. Beecroft re-examines representations of authorship as found in poetic biographies such as Lives of Homer and the Zuozhuan, and in the works of other philosophical and historical authors like Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, Confucius, and Sima Qian. Many of these anecdotes and narratives have long been rejected as spurious or motivated by naïve biographical criticism. Beecroft argues that these texts effectively negotiated the tensions between local and pan-cultural audiences. The figure of the author thus served as a catalyst to a sense of shared cultural identity in both the Greek and Chinese worlds. It also facilitated the emergence of both cultures as the bases for cosmopolitan world orders.

Authorship and Greek Song: Authority, Authenticity, and Performance

Authorship and Greek Song: Authority, Authenticity, and Performance
Author :
Publisher : BRILL
Total Pages : 305
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9789004339705
ISBN-13 : 9004339701
Rating : 4/5 (05 Downloads)

Synopsis Authorship and Greek Song: Authority, Authenticity, and Performance by :

Authorship and Greek Song is a collection of papers dealing with various aspects of authorship in the song culture of Ancient Greece. In this cultural context the idea of the poet as author of his poems is complicated by the fact that poetry in archaic Greece circulated as songs performed for a variety of audiences, both local and “global” (Panhellenic). The volume’s chapters discuss questions about the importance of the singers/performers; the nature of the performance occasion; the status of the poet; the authority of the poet/author and/or that of the performer; and the issues of authenticity arising when poems are composed under a given poet’s name. The volume offers discussions of major authors such as Pindar, Sappho, and Theognis.

That Wonderful Composite Called Author

That Wonderful Composite Called Author
Author :
Publisher : BRILL
Total Pages : 235
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9789004279421
ISBN-13 : 9004279423
Rating : 4/5 (21 Downloads)

Synopsis That Wonderful Composite Called Author by : Christian Schwermann

Did East Asian literatures, ranging from bronze inscriptions to zazen treatises, lack a concept of authorship before their integration into classical modernity? The answer depends on how one defines the term author. Starting out with a critical review of recent theories of authorship, this edited volume distinguishes various author functions, which can be distributed among several individuals and need not be integrated into a single source of textual meaning. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean literary traditions cover the whole spectrum from 'weak' composite to 'strong' individual forms and concepts of authorship. Divisions on this scale can be equated with gradual differences in the range of self-articulation. Contributors are Roland Altenburger, Alexander Beecroft, Marion Eggert, Simone Müller, Christian Schwermann, and Raji Steineck.

After Wisdom

After Wisdom
Author :
Publisher : BRILL
Total Pages : 304
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9789004529014
ISBN-13 : 9004529012
Rating : 4/5 (14 Downloads)

Synopsis After Wisdom by :

The nine essays in this volume, written by an international and interdisciplinary group of younger scholars, explore comparative dimensions of ancient Chinese and Greek literature, illuminating the development of myth, reason, wisdom literature, and scholarship during the first millennium BCE.

The Homeric Epics and the Chinese Book of Songs

The Homeric Epics and the Chinese Book of Songs
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages : 509
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781527523791
ISBN-13 : 1527523799
Rating : 4/5 (91 Downloads)

Synopsis The Homeric Epics and the Chinese Book of Songs by : Fritz-Heiner Mutschler

The Homeric epics and the Book of Songs are not just the fountainheads of the Western and Chinese literary traditions; for centuries they played a central role in education and communal life, and thus exercised a lasting influence on both civilizations. This volume presents the first systematic comparison of the two corpora. Part One analyzes their genesis and their reception, while Part Two discusses their characteristics as poetic creations. The book brings together Chinese and Western sinologists and classicists, and so promotes significant interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogue. Though the contributors rank among the leading experts in their fields, the essays here are accessible not only to their peers, but also to the interested ‘general reader’, and so to all those who seek a deeper understanding of Chinese and Western civilizations, their common human basis and their characteristic differences.

Qu Yuan and the Chuci

Qu Yuan and the Chuci
Author :
Publisher : BRILL
Total Pages : 493
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9789004679917
ISBN-13 : 900467991X
Rating : 4/5 (17 Downloads)

Synopsis Qu Yuan and the Chuci by : Martin Kern

In this volume, leading scholars of early Chinese literature offer new, multi-faceted research on the ancient anthology Lyrics of Chu (Chuci). Through meticulous textual analysis, richly annotated translations, and theoretical reflection, they challenge millennia-old assumptions about China’s arch-poet Qu Yuan (ca. 300 BCE), his authorship, and the composition of the lyrics attributed to him, above all the “Li sao” (Encountering Sorrow), ancient China’s grandest poem. Thoroughly original insights into the poetics and aesthetics of Chuci poetry reopen these resplendent lyrics to a fresh appraisal of their captivating qualities and their foundational significance for the Chinese literary tradition. Contributors are: Lucas Rambo Bender, Heng Du, Michael Hunter, Martin Kern, Paul W. Kroll, Stephen Owen.

Pesher and Hypomnema: A Comparison of Two Commentary Traditions from the Hellenistic-Roman Period

Pesher and Hypomnema: A Comparison of Two Commentary Traditions from the Hellenistic-Roman Period
Author :
Publisher : BRILL
Total Pages : 378
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9789004354203
ISBN-13 : 9004354204
Rating : 4/5 (03 Downloads)

Synopsis Pesher and Hypomnema: A Comparison of Two Commentary Traditions from the Hellenistic-Roman Period by : Pieter B. Hartog

In Pesher and Hypomnema Pieter B. Hartog compares ancient Jewish commentaries on the Hebrew Bible with papyrus commentaries on the Iliad. Hartog shows that members of the Qumran movement adopted classical commentary writing and adapted it to their own needs.

The Art of Chinese Philosophy

The Art of Chinese Philosophy
Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Total Pages : 356
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780691200811
ISBN-13 : 0691200815
Rating : 4/5 (11 Downloads)

Synopsis The Art of Chinese Philosophy by : Paul Goldin

A smart and accessible introduction to the most important works of ancient Chinese philosophy—the Analects of Confucius, Mozi, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Sunzi, Xunzi, and Han Feizi This book provides an unmatched introduction to eight of the most important works of classical Chinese philosophy—the Analects of Confucius, Mozi, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Sunzi, Xunzi, and Han Feizi. Combining accessibility with the latest scholarship, Paul Goldin, one of the world's leading authorities on the history of Chinese philosophy, places these works in rich context as he explains the origin and meaning of their compelling ideas. Because none of these classics was written in its current form by the author to whom it is attributed, the book begins by asking, "What are we reading?" and showing that understanding the textual history of the works enriches our appreciation of them. A chapter is devoted to each of the eight works, and the chapters are organized into three sections: "Philosophy of Heaven," which looks at how the Analects, Mozi, and Mencius discuss, often skeptically, Heaven (tian) as a source of philosophical values; "Philosophy of the Way," which addresses how Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Sunzi introduce the new concept of the Way (dao) to transcend the older paradigms; and "Two Titans at the End of an Age," which examines how Xunzi and Han Feizi adapt the best ideas of the earlier thinkers for a coming imperial age. In addition, the book presents clear and insightful explanations of the protean and frequently misunderstood concept of qi—and of a crucial characteristic of Chinese philosophy, nondeductive reasoning. The result is an invaluable account of an endlessly fascinating and influential philosophical tradition.

An Ecology of World Literature

An Ecology of World Literature
Author :
Publisher : Verso Books
Total Pages : 321
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781781685747
ISBN-13 : 1781685746
Rating : 4/5 (47 Downloads)

Synopsis An Ecology of World Literature by : Alexander Beecroft

What constitutes a nation’s literature? How do literatures of different countries interact with one another? In this groundbreaking study, Alexander Beecroft develops a new way of thinking about world literature. Drawing on a series of examples and case studies, the book ranges from ancient epic to the contemporary fiction of Roberto Bolaño and Amitav Ghosh. Moving across literary ecologies of varying sizes, from small societies to the planet as a whole, the environments in which literary texts are produced and circulated, An Ecology of World Literature places in dialogue scholarly perspectives on ancient and modern, western and non-western texts, navigating literary study into new and uncharted territory.

Globalizing Literary Genres

Globalizing Literary Genres
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 290
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781317483434
ISBN-13 : 131748343X
Rating : 4/5 (34 Downloads)

Synopsis Globalizing Literary Genres by : Jernej Habjan

Focused on the relation between processes of globalization and literary genres, this volume intervenes in the prevalent notions of globalization, literary history, genre, and the novel. Using both close reading and world history, both literary criticism and political theory, the book is a timely intervention in the debates about world, postcolonial, and transnational literature as they have been intensified by critical globalization studies, world-systems analysis, Bourdieuan sociology, and cosmopolitanism studies. It contends that globalization, far from starting in recent decades, has a long and complex history, not unlike the history of literature itself, meaning that when we speak of globalization and literature, we in effect invoke the entire history of literature. Essays examine literary genres in relation to broader historical processes, connecting the present state of globalization to such key world-historic events as the early modern geographical and scientific explorations, the Enlightenment, the expansions of modernity in the long nineteenth and twentieth centuries, postmodernity and postcoloniality, and contemporary counter-hegemonic movements. The book offers innovative readings of the pastoral from Saint-Pierre to Carpentier; the novel in Kant and Wieland, and in Diderot and Marx; travel writing from Verne to Cortázar; sports writing in James and Kahn; entrelacement in Bolaño, Ghosh, and Soderbergh; and also the Mozambican ghost story, Indian genre fiction, "fake" autobiographies, Sephardic "language memoirs," the postcolonial Gothic, Irish "chick lit," and counter-hegemonic novels. Making important theoretical contributions to a renewed discussion about genre, especially genres of narrative fiction, this volume addresses global studies, the history of the novel, and debates over periodization and nationalism in literary history.