A. Laird (ed.), Ancient Literary Criticism

LAIRD, Andrew (ed.), Ancient Literary Criticism, Oxford University Press (Series: Oxford Readings in Classical Studies), 2006, 512 p.

ISBN-10: 0-19-925865-1

The volume makes widely available some important scholarship on the canonical texts of ancient rhetoric and poetics. Whilst there are numerous studies of general trends in classical criticism, this collection offers direct discussions of primary sources, which provide a useful companion to the Russell and Winterbottom anthology, Ancient Literary Criticism . The volume contains a chronology, suggestions for further reading, a new translation of Bernays' 1857 essay on katharsis, and an important introductory chapter addressing the tension in ancient literary criticism between its place in the classical tradition and its role in contemporary endeavours to reconstruct ancient culture.

CONTENTS :

1. The value of ancient literary criticism , Andrew Laird

2. Poetic inspiration in early Greece , Penelope Murray

3. Homeric professors in the age of the sophists

4. A theory of imitation in Plato's `Republic' , Elizabeth Belfiore

5. Plato and Aristotle on the denial of tragedy , Stephen Halliwell

6. Ethos and dianoia: `character' and `thought' in Aristotle's Poetics , A. M. Dale

7. Aristotle on the effect of tragedy , Jacob Bernays

8. Literary criticism in the exegetical scholia to the Iliad: a sketch , N. J. Richardson

9. Stoic readings of Homer , A. A. Long

10. Epicurean poetics , Elizabeth Asmis

11. Rhetoric and criticism , D. A. Russell

12. Theories of evaluation in the rhetorical works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus , D. M. Schenkeveld

13. Longinus: structure and unity , Doreen C. Innes

14. The structure of Plutarch's `De audiendis poetis' , D. M. Schenkveld

15. Ars poetica , D. A. Russell

16. Ovid on reading: reading Ovid. reception in Ovid `Tristia' II , Bruce Gibson

17. Reading and response in the `Dialogues' , T. J. Luce

18. The Virgil commentary of Servius , Don Fowler

19. Ancient literary genres - a mirage? , Thomas G. Rosenmeyer

20. Criticism ancient and modern , Denis Feeney