Modern Literary Theory and Ancient Texts: An Introduction

Modern LiteraryTheory and Ancient Texts : An Introduction......Page 1
Contents......Page 7
Acknowledgments......Page 11
Acknowledgments for the English Translation......Page 12
What Is, and To What End Do We Study, Literary Theory?......Page 13
Literary Theory and Classics......Page 16
Objections Raised against Literary Theory......Page 18
How to Use This Book......Page 23
Introductions to LiteraryTheory......Page 25
1 Russian Formalism......Page 29
The Question of Literariness......Page 31
Roman Jakobson’s Model of Linguistic Communication......Page 33
Poetic Language as Defamiliarization......Page 35
Further Reading......Page 37
2 Structuralism......Page 38
The Founder of Structuralism: Ferdinand de Saussure......Page 39
Saussure’s Definition of the Linguistic Sign......Page 41
The Meaning of Differences......Page 42
Structuralism and Subject......Page 45
Structural Anthropology......Page 46
Is Structuralist Interpretation Possible?......Page 50
Structuralist Definitions of Literary Genres......Page 52
Further Reading......Page 54
3 Narratology......Page 55
Vladimir Propp’s Analysis of the Folk Tale......Page 56
Greimas’s Actantial Theory of Narrative......Page 59
Roland Barthes and the Study of Narrative Texts......Page 62
Structuralist Plot-Analysis: Gerard Genette......Page 67
Irene de Jong’s Narratological Analysis of the Homeric Epics......Page 72
Further Reading......Page 74
4 Mikhail Bakhtin......Page 75
Bakhtin’s Life and the Problem of His Writings......Page 76
Dialogism and the Novel......Page 78
The Carnivalization of Literature......Page 81
Menippean Satire and Ancient Carnivalesque Literature......Page 83
Further Reading......Page 88
Leading the Way: Julia Kristeva......Page 89
Further Developments of Intertextuality......Page 90
Gerard Genette’s Model of Hypertextuality......Page 92
Intertextuality in Virgil......Page 95
Further Reading......Page 97
6 Reader-Response Criticism......Page 98
Empirical Reception Studies......Page 99
Aesthetics of Reception......Page 100
American Reader-Response Criticism......Page 103
Wheeler’s Analysis of Ovid’s Metamorphoses......Page 106
Further Reading......Page 108
7 Orality – Literacy......Page 110
Oral Cultures:The Theses of Goody and Watt......Page 111
What Does “Orality ”Mean?......Page 114
Oral Poetry......Page 116
The Homeric Epics as a Test Case......Page 118
Further Reading......Page 123
8 Deconstruction......Page 125
The Foundations: Derrida’s Criticism of Logocentrism......Page 126
Deconstruction in America......Page 132
Objections to Deconstruction......Page 134
The Role of the Author......Page 136
Stanley Fish’s Model of “Interpretive Communities”......Page 139
The Responsibility of the Interpreter......Page 142
Deconstruction’s Merits and Demerits......Page 148
Deconstruction in Antiquity? Socrates und Protagoras......Page 149
Further Reading......Page 151
9 Michel Foucault and Discourse Analysis......Page 152
The Power of Discourse......Page 153
Objections to Foucault’s Analysis of Discourse......Page 157
Foucault and Antiquity......Page 161
The Debate about Foucault’s Interpretation of Ancient Sexuality......Page 165
Further Reading......Page 169
10 NewHistoricism......Page 171
New Historicism and Deconstruction......Page 172
New Historicism and Michel Foucault......Page 177
Objections to New Historicism......Page 179
New Historicism and Antiquity......Page 184
Further Reading......Page 186
The Feminist Movement and Definitions of “Woman”......Page 188
Feminism in Literary Criticism......Page 190
French Feminism......Page 192
Pragmatic Feminism in Literary Criticism......Page 194
From Images of Women to Gender Studies......Page 199
Queer Theory......Page 201
Gender Studies and Attic Drama......Page 203
Further Reading......Page 205
12 Psychoanalytic Approaches......Page 207
Interpreting Dreams, Interpreting Literature......Page 209
Three Attempts at Psychoanalytic Interpretation......Page 212
Language and the Unconscious: Jacques Lacan......Page 214
Further Reading......Page 216
Conclusions?......Page 217
Whither Now?......Page 219
Additional Notes......Page 221
References and Bibliography......Page 227
Index......Page 245