Who Needs Greek?: Contests in the Cultural History of HellenismDoes Greek matter? To whom and why? This interdisciplinary study focuses on moments when passionate conflicts about Greek and Greek-ness have erupted in both the modern and the ancient worlds. It looks at the Renaissance, when men were burned at the stake over biblical Greek, at violent Victorian rows over national culture and the schooling of a country, at the shocking performances of modernist opera - and it also examines the ancient world and its ideas of what it means to be Greek, especially in the first and second centuries CE. The book sheds light on how the ancient and modern worlds interrelate, and how fantasies and deals, struggles and conflicts have come together under the name of Greece. As a contribution to theatre studies, Renaissance and Victorian cultural history, and to the understanding of ancient writing, this book takes reception studies in an exciting alternative direction. |
Contents
Learning Greek is heresy Resisting Erasmus | 14 |
Becoming Greek with Lucian | 60 |
Blood from the shadows Strauss disgusting degenerate Elektra | 108 |
Who knows Greek? | 178 |
The value of Greek Why save Plutarch? | 246 |
rainbow bridges | 294 |
| 300 | |
| 322 | |
Other editions - View all
Who Needs Greek?: Contests in the Cultural History of Hellenism Simon Goldhill No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
academic Aeschylus Anacharsis ancient ancient Greece argument Arnold audience authority became called Cambridge Cambridge Greek Play Cambridge University Library Cato Chamberlain chapter claim classical Clytemnestra contemporary critical cultural identity debate declared dialogue discussion drama Duff Duncan edition Elektra Empire engagement England English Erasmus especially Favorinus figure friends German Greece Greek culture Greek language Greek studies Headlam Hellenism Herodotus heroes Hofmannsthal Hofmannsthal's Homer ideal intellectual Iphigeneia Jerome Keats knowing Greek knowledge Lady Constance language Latin learning Greek lecture letters literary London Lucian Lycinus Matthew Arnold modern narrative opera Oresteia passionate performance philosophical play Plutarch polemical political portrait produced prose question Quincey reader reform religious rhetoric role Roman Questions satire scholars scholarship Shaw social Sophocles speech story Strauss Syrian Tatler tradition tragedy translation Verrall Victorian Viola Tree Wagner words writing wrote