R. Hunter, Critical Moments in Classical Literature: Studies in the Ancient View of Literature and Its Uses

Richard Hunter, Critical Moments in Classical Literature: Studies in the Ancient View of Literature and Its Uses,  Cambridge/New York:  Cambridge University Press, 2009.  Pp. vii, 217.    

• ISBN 9780521519854.  
• $95.00.  

Recension par Nancy Worman (Barnard College, Columbia University) dans Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2010.03.07.

Extraits en ligne sur le site de l'éditeur.

Présentation de l'éditeur:

Through a series of innovative critical readings Richard Hunter builds a picture of how the ancients discussed the meaning of literary works and their importance in society. He pays particular attention to the interplay of criticism and creativity by not treating criticism in isolation from the works which the critics discussed. Attention is given both to the development of a history of criticism, as far as our sources allow, and to the constant recurrence of similar themes across the centuries. At the head of the book stands the contest of Aeschylus and Euripides in Aristophanes' Frogs which foreshadows more of the subsequent critical tradition than is often realised. Other chapters are devoted to ancient reflection on Greek and Roman comedy, to the Augustan critic Dionysius of Halicarnassus, to 'Longinus', On the Sublime, and to Plutarch. All Greek and Latin is translated.

Table des matières:

Acknowledgements vi

List of abbreviations vii

Introduction 1

1     Aristophanes' Frogs and the critical tradition 10

2     Readings of Homer: Euripides' Cyclops 53

3     Comic moments 78

4     The ugly peasant and the naked virgins: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, On Imitation 107

5     The grand and the less grand: ‘Longinus', On the Sublime 128

6     Reading for life: Plutarch, ‘How the young man should study poetry' 169

Bibliography 202

Index of passages discussed 212

General index 215