David Fearn, Bacchylides. Politics, Performance, Poetic Tradition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, coll. "Oxford Classical Monographs", 2007, xii-428p.
ISBN 978-0-19-921550-8
Recension par Giambattista D'Alessio (King's College London) dans Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2008.11.14.
Présentation de l'éditeur:
- An original and wide-ranging study, throwing new light on Bacchylides' approach to poetic tradition
- Combines close literary analysis with a study of the political backdrop to Bacchylides' work
Bacchylides: Politics, Performance, Poetic Traditioncombines close literary analysis of Bacchylides' poetry with detaileddiscussion of the central role poetry played in a variety of differingpolitical contexts throughout Greece in the early fifth century BC. InBacchylides' praise poetry, David Fearn argues, the poet manipulates awide range of earlier Greek literature not only toelevate the status of his wealthy patrons, but also to provoke thoughtabout the nature of political power and aristocratic society. New lightis also shed on Bacchylides' Dithyrambs, through detailed discussion of the evidence for the kuklios khoros('circular chorus') and its relation to a variety of differentreligious festivals, especially within democratic Athens. The linkscreatedbetween literary concerns and cultural contexts reinvigorate theseunderappreciated poems and reveal their central importance for theself-definition of political communities.
David Fearn, P.S. Allen Junior research Fellow in Classics, Corpus Christi College, Oxford