Characterization In Ancient Greek Literature

This is the fourth volume in the series Studies in Ancient Greek Narrative. The book deals with the narratological concepts of character and characterization and explores the textual devices used for purposes of characterization by ancient Greek authors from Homer to Heliodorus.

This is the fourth volume in the series Studies in Ancient Greek Narrative. The book deals with the narratological concepts of character and characterization and explores the textual devices used for purposes of characterization by ancient Greek authors from Homer to Heliodorus.

Analyzes the characterization of the protagonists in the five extant, so-called 'ideal' Greek novels of the first few centuries C.E., using the conceptual couples of typification/individuation, idealistic/realistic characterization, and static/dynamic character to show their complexity.

This is the first in a series of volumes which together will provide an entirely new history of ancient Greek (narrative) literature. Its organization is formal rather than biographical. It traces the history of central narrative devices, such as the narrator and his narratees, time, focalization, characterization, description, speech, and plot. It offers not only analyses of the handling of such a device by individual authors, but also a larger historical perspective on the manner in which it changes over time and is put to different uses by different authors in different genres. The first volume lays the foundation for all volumes to come, discussing the definition and boundaries of narrative, and the roles of its producer, the narrator, and recipient, the narratees.

This collection of commentaries by contributors such as Pelling, C.J. Gill, P.E. Easterling, F.S. Halliwell, D.A.F.M. Russell, S. Godhill, L. Coventry, M.S. Silk, O.P. Taplin, and J. Griffin examines a range of topics including childhood and personality in Greek biography, the construction of character in Greek tragedy, ethos as rhetorical theory, characterization in Plato's dialogues, the people of Aristophanes, the role of Agamemnon in the Iliad, and characterization in Euripides.

This is the second volume of a new narratological history of Ancient Greek lietrature, which deals with aspects of time: the order in which events are narrated, the amount of time devoted to the naration, and the number of times they are presented.

This collection of commentaries by contributors such as Pelling, C.J. Gill, P.E. Easterling, F.S. Halliwell, D.A.F.M. Russell, S. Godhill, L. Coventry, M.S. Silk, O.P. Taplin, and J. Griffin examines a range of topics including childhood and personality in Greek biography, the construction of character in Greek tragedy, ethos as rhetorical theory, characterization in Plato's dialogues, the people of Aristophanes, the role of Agamemnon in the Iliad, and characterization in Euripides.

Well before Aristotle's Rhetoric elucidated the elements of verbal style that give writing its persuasive power, Greek poets and prose authors understood the importance of style in creating compelling characters to engage an audience. And because their works were composed in predominantly oral settings, their sense of style included not only the characters' manner of speaking, but also their appearance and deportment. From Homeric epic to classical tragedy and oratory, verbal and visual cues work hand-in-hand to create distinctive styles for literary characters. In this book, Nancy Worman investigates the development and evolution of ideas about style in archaic and classical literature through a study of representations of Odysseus and Helen. She demonstrates that, as liars and imitators, pleasing storytellers, and adept users of costume, these two figures are especially skillful manipulators of style. In tracing the way literary representations of them changed through time—from Homer's positive portrayal of their subtle self-presentations to the sharply polarized portrayals of these same subtleties in classical tragedy and oratory—Worman also uncovers a nascent awareness among the Greek writers that style may be used not only to persuade but also to distract and deceive.