Theocritus - Space, Absence, and Desire

Theocritus: Space, Absence, and Desire discusses many of Theocritus's Idylls with emphasis on how these poems construct space--its contours and borders, along with the people, animals, and objects that fill it--and the equally important role of absence.

List of contents

• Preface


• Introduction


• Note on Text and Transliteration


• Chapter 1: Theocritean Spaces 1: The Bucolic and Urban Poems


• Chapter 2: Theocritean Spaces 2: Mythological and Encomiastic Space


• Chapter 3: The Poetics of Absence


• Chapter 4: On the Margins of Bucolic


• Chapter 5: Conclusion


• References


• Indexes

About the author

William G. Thalmann has taught at Yale University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and the University of Southern California, where he is now Professor Emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature. He is the author of five previous books on Greek poetry and a number of articles on ancient literature and ancient slavery.

Summary

Theocritus: Space, Absence, and Desire discusses many of Theocritus's Idylls with emphasis on how these poems construct space--its contours and borders, along with the people, animals, and objects that fill it--and the equally important role of absence.

Additional text

Can humans ever truly fit into nature? This is one of the central questions asked by William G. Thalmann in his book Theocritus: Space, Absence, and Desire. The book treats the Theocritean corpus as a multifaceted whole, covering a range of fictional spaces (from the bucolic to the urban, the mythological to the encomiastic), all coloured by the overarching contextual space of the Ptolemaic empire. But the bucolic Idylls take on particular importance as they raise the question of the relationship of human culture to nature.

Product details

• Authors: William G. Thalmann, William G. (Professor Emeritus of Classi Thalmann, William G. (Professor Emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature Thalmann, Thalmann William G.
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 28.02.2023
• EAN: 9780197636558
• ISBN: 978-0-19-763655-8
• No. of pages: 256
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; LITERARY CRITICISM / Poetry, LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Literary studies: poetry & poets, Ancient (Classical) Greek, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, Literary studies: poetry and poets