Narratology and Interpretation: The Content of Narrative Form in Ancient Literature

640 Pages·2009·2.819 MB·English

by  Jonas Grethlein, Antonios Rengakos

Narratology and Interpretation

≥
Trends in Classics -
Supplementary Volumes
Edited by
Franco Montanari and Antonios Rengakos
Scientific Committee
Alberto Bernabe´ · Margarethe Billerbeck · Claude Calame
Philip R. Hardie · Stephen J. Harrison · Stephen Hinds
Richard Hunter · Christina Kraus · Giuseppe Mastromarco
Gregory Nagy · Theodore D. Papanghelis · Giusto Picone
Kurt Raaflaub · Bernhard Zimmermann
Volume 4

Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
Narratology and Interpretation
The Content of Narrative Form
in Ancient Literature
Edited by
Jonas Grethlein
Antonios Rengakos

Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
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Narratology and interpretation : the content of narrative form in
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Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-3-11-021452-9(hardcover:alk.paper)
1.Narration(Rhetoric)-History. 2.Greekliterature-History
andcriticism. I.Grethlein,Jonas,1978- II.Rengakos,Antonios.
PA3003.N37 2009
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Contents
Introduction ....................................... 1
I. Ancient Predecessors of Narratology
Stephen Halliwell
The Theory and Practice of Narrative in Plato ............ 15
Richard Hunter
The Trojan Oration of Dio Chrysostom and Ancient Homeric
Criticism .......................................... 43
René Nünlist
Narratological Concepts in Greek Scholia ................ 63
II. Narratology – New Concepts
Irene de Jong
Metalepsis in Ancient Greek Literature .................. 87
Egbert J. Bakker
Homer, Odysseus, and the Narratology of Performance ..... 117
Deborah Beck
Speech Act Types, Conversational Exchange, and the Speech
Representational Spectrum in Homer ................... 137
Jonas Grethlein
Philosophical and Structuralist Narratologies – Worlds Apart? . 153
VI Contents
III. Narratology and the Interpretation of Epic and Lyric
Poetry
Evanthia Tsitsibakou-Vasalos
Chance or Design? Language and Plot Management in the
Odyssey. Klytaimnestra %kowor lmgstµ 1l^sato ............ 177
Marios Skempis – Ioannis Ziogas
Arete’s Words: Etymology, Ehoie-Poetry and Gendered
Narrative in the Odyssey .............................. 213
Lucia Athanassaki
Narratology, Deixis, and the Performance of Choral Lyric. On
Pindar’s First Pythian Ode ............................. 241
Georg Danek
Apollonius Rhodius as an (anti-)Homeric Narrator: Time and
Space in the Argonautica .............................. 275
Evina Sistakou
‘Snapshots’ of Myth: The Notion of Time in Hellenistic
Epyllion ........................................... 293
Theodore D. Papanghelis
Aeneid 5.362–484: Time, Epic and the Analeptic Gauntlets .. 321
IV. Narratology and the Interpretation of Tragedy
Francis Dunn
Sophocles and the Narratology of Drama ................. 337
Marianne Hopman
Layered Stories in Aeschylus’ Persians .................... 357
Seth L. Schein
Narrative Technique in the Parodos of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon . 377
Anna A. Lamari
Knowing a Story’s End: Future Reflexive in the Tragic
Narrative of the Argive Expedition Against Thebes ......... 399
Ruth Scodel
Ignorant Narrators in Greek Tragedy .................... 421
Contents VII
V. Narratology and the Interpretation of Historiography
Christos C. Tsagalis
Names and Narrative Techniques in Xenophon’s Anabasis ... 451
Nikos Miltsios
The Perils of Expectations: Perceptions, Suspense and Surprise
in Polybius’ Histories ................................. 481
Christopher Pelling
Seeing through Caesar’s Eyes: Focalisation and Interpretation . 507
Chrysanthe Tsitsiou-Chelidoni
History beyond Literature: Interpreting the ‘Internally
Focalized’ Narrative in Livy’s Ab urbe condita .............. 527
Philip Hardie
Fame’s Narratives. Epic and Historiography ............... 555
List of Contributors ................................. 573
Bibliography ....................................... 577
General Index ...................................... 617
Passages Index ...................................... 623

Introduction
1
In the last two decades, a technical analysis of narrative, as outlined by
Genette,Balandothers,1hasbecomeincreasinglypopularinthefieldof
Classics. De Jong’s groundbreaking study of ‘narrators and focalizers’ in
the Iliad has inspired narratological readings of other genres as well as
prompting further studies of epic.2 Narratology has proven itself to be
a highly apt tool with which to explore the complex structures of the
ancient novel.3 Hornblower has shown that concepts such as ‘anachro-
ny’ and ‘embedded focalisation’ can help us to elucidate the sophisticat-
ed narratives of ancient historians and so paved the way for Rood’s
monographlengthstudyof Thucydides.4Theapplicationofnarratology
has also been extended beyond prose-narratives: even before de Jong’s
study of the Iliad, Hurst and Köhnken had explored the temporal struc-
ture of epinicean poetry;5 now we also have a full study of the narrator
in Archaic and Hellenistic poetry by Morrison.6 Furthermore, scholars
such as Goward, Barrett and Markantonatos have applied a narratolog-
icalapproachtoGreektragedy.7Theprojecttowriteahistoryof Greek
literature from a narratological point of view has already produced two
door-stop volumes, Narrators, Narratees, and Narratives in Ancient Greek

1 See,e.g.,Genette(1972) 1980;Chatman1978;Bal(1985) 1997.Alltheseap-
proachesarediscourse-oriented,i.e.theyfocusonthemediationofastoryina
discourse. Although the works of Calame 1996 and Edmonds 2004 illustrate
that there have been attempts to apply story-oriented narratologies (e.g. that
of Greimas, Bremond) to classical texts, the influence of this branch of narra-
tology has been significantly smaller.
2 De Jong (1987) 2004. On Homer, see, e.g., Richardson 1990; Rabel 1997;
Alden 2000. Fusillo’s narratological study of Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica
(1985) predates de Jong’s Iliad-monograph.
3 Winkler 1985; Fusillo 1989; Morales 2005.
4 Hornblower 1994; Rood 1998.
5 Hurst 1983; 1985; Köhnken 1983.
6 Morrison 2007.
7 Goward 1999; Barrett 2002; Markantonatos 2002.
2 Introduction
Literature and Time in Ancient Greek Literature, and a third volume to
focus on space and narrative is in preparation.
Narratological theory has however, in the meanwhile, moved on.
Whereas most Classicists are still busy exploring the avenues opened
by the application of the structuralist models developed in the 1960s
and 70s, in literary theory the singular ‘narratology’ has given way to
apluralityof‘narratologies’.8Manyapproachesincludingfeminism,cul-
tural history and postcolonial studies have developed their own specific
narratologies, and in a wide range of disciplines, notably history, psy-
chology and philosophy, the paradigm of narrative has inspired new
fields of research.9 At the same time, attempts have been made to
widen the breadth of subjects covered by narratology so as to include
in it not only genres such as drama and lyric, but also oral conversation
and other media, especially film, art and music.10 While many of these
interdisciplinary and intermedial narratologies still rely on traditional
structuralist concepts, some scholars have ventured to set narratology
onanewfooting.Cognitivestudies,inparticular,havepresentedthem-
selves as an attractive starting point for scholars who try to move from
the text to the act of reception, one of the most advanced concepts
being Fludernik’s natural narratology.11
The ‘explosion of activity in the field of narrative study’12 has not
been met with unqualified enthusiasm. Besides denouncing the abuse
of‘narratology’asafashionablelabelforallkindsofreadingsthatscarce-
ly treat of narratological matters, scholars have expressed their anxiety
that the interdisciplinary and intermedial enlargement would lead first
to the dilution of narratology and ultimately to its dissolution.13 A
8 For surveys, see Nünning 2003; Fludernik 2005. On the ‘new narratologies’,

see also Herman 1999.
9 The seminal article for feminist narratology is Lanser 1986; Nünning 2000
chartsaculturalhistoricalnarratology;Bhaba1994isimportantforpostcolonial
narratology. White 1973 established theparadigm of narratology in history; in
psychology, see Bruner 1986; Straub, 1998; in philosophy, see Ricoeur
1984–1988 (for an early predecessor, see Schapp (1953) 1976).
10 See in general Wolf 2002 and the contributions to Ryan 2004; Meister 2005.
Onanarratologywhichembracesbothliterarynarrativesandoralstory-telling,
see Fludernik 1996; Herman 2004. Chatman 1978 is a pioneering study for a
narratology of film. On narratology and music, see Kramer 1991; Neubauer
1997; on narratology and figurative art, Dieterle 1988; Steiner 1988.
11 Fludernik 1996. For another approach see Jahn 1997.
12 Herman 1999, 1.
13 See, e.g., Meister 2003.