Narrative and Identity in the Ancient Greek Novel: Returning Romance (Greek Culture in the Roman World)

313 Pages·2011·1.58 MB·English

by  Tim Whitmarsh

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NARRATIVE AND IDENTITY
IN THE ANCIENT
GREEK NOVEL
TheGreekromancewasfortheRomanperiodwhatepicwasforthe
archaic period or drama for the classical: the central literary vehicle
for articulating ideas about the relationship between self and com-
munity. This book offers a fresh reading of the romance both as a
distinctivenarrativeform(usingarangeofnarrativetheories)andasa
paradigmaticexpressionofidentity(social,sexualandcultural).Atthe
same time, it also emphasises the elasticity of romance narrative, its
abilitytoaccommodatebothconservativeandtransformativemodels
of identity. This elasticity manifests itself partly in the variation in
practice between different romancers, some of whom are tradition-
ally Hellenocentric and others more challenging; but ultimately, it
is argued, it reflects a tension in all romance narrative, which char-
acteristically balances centrifugal against centripetal dynamics. This
bookwillinterestclassicists,historiansofthenovel,andstudentsof
narrativetheory.
tim whitmarsh is a leading literary and cultural critic of the
Greek world during the time of the Roman empire. A specialist in
both ancient texts and modern theories, he has written over fifty
articles and five books, including Greek Literature and the Roman
Empire(2001)andTheSecondSophistic(2005);hehasalsoeditedor
co-editedfourbooks,andeditstwobookseries.
GREEK CULTURE IN THE ROMAN WORLD
Editors
susan e. alcock,BrownUniversity
jaS´ elsner,CorpusChristiCollege,Oxford
simon goldhill,UniversityofCambridge
TheGreekcultureoftheRomanempireoffersarichfieldofstudy.Extraordinaryinsights
canbegainedintoprocessesofmulticulturalcontactandexchange,politicalandideological
conflict,andthecreativityofachanging,polyglotempire.Duringthisperiod,manyfun-
damentalelementsofWesternsocietywerebeingsetinplace:fromtheriseofChristianity,
toaninfluentialsystemofeducation,tolong-livedartisticcanons.Thisseriesisthefirst
to focus on the response of Greek culture to its Roman imperial setting as a significant
phenomenoninitsownright.Tothisend,itwillpublishoriginalandinnovativeresearch
intheart,archaeology,epigraphy,history,philosophy,religion,andliteratureoftheempire,
withanemphasisonGreekmaterial.
Titlesinseries:
AthleticsandLiteratureintheRomanEmpire
JasonKo¨nig
DescribingGreece:LandscapeandLiteratureinthePeriegesisofPausanias
WilliamHutton
ReligiousIdentityinLateAntiquity:Greeks,JewsandChristiansinAntioch
IsabellaSandwell
HellenisminByzantium:TheTransformationsofGreekIdentityandtheReceptionofthe
ClassicalTradition
AnthonyKaldellis
TheMakingofRomanIndia
GrantParker
Philostratus
EditedbyEwenBowieandJa´sElsner
ThePoliticsofMunificenceintheRomanEmpire:Citizens,Elitesand
BenefactorsinAsiaMinor
ArjanZuiderhoek
SaintsandChurchSpacesintheLateAntiqueMediterranean:Architecture,
Cult,andCommunity
AnnMarieYasin
GalenandtheWorldofKnowledge
EditedbyChristopherGill,TimWhitmarshandJohnWilkins
LocalKnowledgeandMicroidentitiesintheImperialGreekWorld
EditedbyTimWhitmarsh
HomerBetweenHistoryandFictioninImperialGreekLiterature
LaurenceKim
EpiphanyandRepresentationinGraeco-RomanCulture:Art,Literature,Religion
VerityPlatt
NarrativeandIdentityintheAncientGreekNovel
TimWhitmarsh
NARRATIVE AND IDENTITY
IN THE ANCIENT
GREEK NOVEL
Returning Romance
by
TIM WHITMARSH
cambridge university press
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Firstpublished2011
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Whitmarsh,Tim.
NarrativeandidentityintheancientGreeknovel:returningromance/Tim
Whitmarsh.
p. cm.–(GreekcultureintheRomanworld)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-0-521-82391-3(hardback)
1.Greekfiction–Historyandcriticism. 2.Narration(Rhetoric)–
History–To1500. I.Title.
pa3267.w55 2011
883(cid:3).0109–dc22 2010052774
isbn978-0-521-82391-3Hardback
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websitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
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Contents
Preface pageix
Listofabbreviations xi
Introduction 1
part i returning romance
1 Firstromances:CharitonandXenophon 25
2 Transformingromance:AchillesTatiusandLongus 69
3 Hellenismattheedge:Heliodorus 108
part ii narrative and identity
4 Pothos 139
5 Telos 177
6 Limen 214
Conclusion 253
Appendix: Theextantromancesandthelargerfragments 261
References 265
Index 295
vii