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A number of ancient novelists were skilful storytellers and resourceful literary artists, and their works are often carefully individualised presentations of an ancient and distinguished heritage. Ancient Fiction, first published in 1984, examines the tales retold by these novelists in light of more recently discovered Near Eastern texts, and in this way offers a tentative solution to Rohde's celebrated problem about the origins of the Greek novel. Among the surprises that emerge are an ancient stratum of the Arabian Nights and a possible Tristan-Romance, as well as an animal Satyricon and a human Golden Ass. This new framework is, however, incidental to an examination of the achievements of ancient novelists in their own right. In presenting character, structuring narrative, imposing a veneer of sophistication or contriving a religious ethos, these writers demonstrate that their work is worthy of sympathetic study, rather dismissal as the pulp fiction of the ancient world.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Preface; Abbreviations 1. The First Fiction: Oriental Origins 2. Narrative into Novel: Plots and Personalities 3. Love and Learning 4. Character and Convention 5. Myth and Mystery 6. History and Society 7. Sex and Sentiment 8. Structure and Suspense 9. The Sublime and the Subliterary: Longus and Xenophon of Ephesus 10. Phoenician Tales and other Fragments 11. Fiction and Folktale 12. In Search of the Satyricon 13. The Ancestry of the Ass-Tale 14. The Golden Satyr, or Encolpius the Ass 15. New Perspectives; Appendix I: Philetas’ Speech and the Numun-Plant; Appendix II: Sesonchosis and Ramin; Appendix III: Ascyltus and Shukalletuda; Select Bibliography; Index of Authors and Texs; Index of Persons and Places
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Graham Anderson
Zusammenfassung
Ancient Fiction, first published in 1984, examines the achievements of ancient novelists in their own right. In presenting character, structuring narrative, imposing a veneer of sophistication or contriving a religious ethos, these writers demonstrate that their work is worthy of sympathetic study, rather dismissal as the pulp fiction of the ancient world.
