Authorship and Cultural Identity in Early Greece and China - Patterns of Literary Circulation

Explores how the earliest poetry in Greece (Homeric epic and lyric) and China (the Canon of Songs) evolved.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. Explicit poetics in Greece and China: points of divergence and convergence; 2. Epic authorship: the Lives of Homer, textuality, and panhellenism; 3. Lyric authorship: poetry, genre, and the polis; 4. Authorship between epic and lyric: stesichorus, the Palinode, and performance; 5. Death and lingerie: cosmopolitan and panhuaxia readings of the Airs of the States; 6. Summit at Fei: the poetics of diplomacy in the Zouzhuan; 7. The politics of dancing: the Great King Wu dance and the Hymns of Zhou; Conclusion: scenes of authorship and master-narratives.

About the author

Alexander Beecroft is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Yale University. He has published on topics in classics, sinology and comparative literature, in journals such as Transactions of the American Philological Association, the New Left Review, and Early Medieval China.

Summary

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 textualized, interpreted, and circulated over increasingly wider areas.

Product details

• Authors: Alexander Beecroft, Beecroft Alexander
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 21.08.2014
• EAN: 9781107435483
• ISBN: 978-1-107-43548-3
• No. of pages: 340
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; China, HISTORY / Ancient / General, Ancient Greece, Chinese, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Ancient History, Classical history / classical civilisation, Ancient (Classical) Greek, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, Literary studies: poetry and poets