1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910965533603321

Autore

Lowe N. J.

Titolo

The classical plot and the invention of Western narrative / / N.J. Lowe

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2000

ISBN

1-107-11944-8

0-511-15238-8

0-521-77176-5

0-511-17332-6

0-511-32748-X

1-280-42950-X

0-511-04961-7

0-511-48228-0

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xiii, 293 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

880/.09

Soggetti

Classical literature - History and criticism - Theory, etc

Classical literature - Stories, plots, etc

Narration (Rhetoric) - History - To 1500

Rhetoric, Ancient

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-285) and index.

Nota di contenuto

; I. The classical plot. ; 1. Approaches. ; 2. A cognitive model. ; 3. The narrative universe. ; 4. The classical plot. ; 5. Unclassical plots -- ; II. The classical plots. ; 6. Epic myth I: Iliad. ; 7. Epic myth II: Odyssey. ; 8. Dramatic myth: tragedy and satyr-play. ; 9. Dramatic fiction: New Comedy. ; 10. Epic fiction: the Greek novel.

Sommario/riassunto

From Homer to Hollywood, the western storytelling tradition has canonised a distinctive set of narrative values characterised by tight economy and closure. This book traces the formation of that classical paradigm in the development of ancient storytelling from Homer to Heliodorus. To tell this story, the book sets out to rehabilitate the idea of 'plot', notoriously disconnected from any recognised system of terminology in literary theory. The first part of the book draws on developments in narratology and cognitive science to propose a way of



formally describing the way stories are structured and understood. This model is then used to write a history of the emergence of the classical plot type in the four ancient genres that shaped it - Homeric epic, fifth-century tragedy, New Comedy, and the Greek novel - with insights into the fundamental narrative poetics of each.