Approaches to Genre in the Ancient World

Approaches to Genre in the Ancient World PDF

Author: Michelle Borg

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2014-07-18

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 144386420X

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No less than their modern counterparts, ancient genres were contested, hybrid and ambiguous. This volume, the result of a conference at the University of Sydney, is a collection dealing with some of the many issues around ancient understandings of genre. It presents a series of case studies, some concerned with texts that have loomed large in discussions of ancient genre (such as the works of Ovid), and others, in particular late-antique works, that have received less attention. Ranging from Rome and Greece to Gaza and Syria, Approaches to Genre in the Ancient World makes a unique contribution to the study of ancient genre and to the understanding of the specific texts discussed.

Literary Construction of Identity in the Ancient World

Literary Construction of Identity in the Ancient World PDF

Author: Hanna Liss

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2010-06-23

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1575066211

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Encountering an ancient text not only as a historical source but also as a literary artifact entails an important paradigm shift, which in recent years has taken place in classical and Oriental philology. Biblical scholars, Egyptologists, and classical philologists have been pioneers in supplementing traditional historical-critical exegesis with more-literary approaches. This has led to a wealth of new insights. While the methodological consequences of this shift have been discussed within each discipline, until recently there has not been an attempt to discuss its validity and methodology on an interdisciplinary level. In 2006, the Faculty of Bible and Biblical Interpretation at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien, Heidelberg, and the Faculty of Theology at the University of Heidelberg invited scholars from the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Israel, and Germany to examine these issues. Under the title “Literary Fiction and the Construction of Identity in Ancient Literatures: Options and Limits of Modern Literary Approaches in the Exegesis of Ancient Texts,” experts in Egyptology, classical philology, ancient Near Eastern studies, biblical studies, Jewish studies, literary studies, and comparative religion came together to present current research and debate open questions. At this conference, each representative (from a total of 23 different disciplines) dealt with literary theory in regard to his or her area of research. The present volume organizes 17 of the resulting essays along 5 thematic lines that show how similar issues are dealt with in different disciplines: (1) Thinking of Ancient Texts as Literature, (2) The Identity of Authors and Readers, (3) Fiction and Fact, (4) Rereading Biblical Poetry, and (5) Modeling the Future by Reconstructing the Past.

Sibyls, Scriptures, and Scrolls

Sibyls, Scriptures, and Scrolls PDF

Author: Joel Baden

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2016-10-11

Total Pages: 1538

ISBN-13: 9004324747

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This volume, a tribute to John J. Collins by his friends, colleagues, and students, includes essays on the wide range of interests that have occupied John Collins’s distinguished career.

Theology and Poetry in Early Byzantium

Theology and Poetry in Early Byzantium PDF

Author: Sarah Gador-Whyte

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-04-19

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1108210848

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Theology and Poetry in Early Byzantium examines the kontakia and thought-world of Romanos the Melodist, the sixth-century hymnographer whose vibrant and engaging compositions had a far-reaching influence in the history of Byzantine liturgy. His compositions bring biblical narratives to life through dialogue, encourage a level of participation unparalleled in homiletics and push the boundaries of liturgical expression of theology. This book provides an original analysis of Romanos' poetry, drawing attention to the coherence of his theology and the performative nature of his rhetoric. The main theological themes which emerge encourage the congregation to enact the life of Christ and anticipate the new creation: restoration of humanity to God, re-creation in the incarnation and life of Christ, and liturgical participation and transformation in that life. By analysing the rhetorical performance of theology in the kontakia, the book provides new insights into religious practice in late antiquity.

The Jewish Novel in the Ancient World

The Jewish Novel in the Ancient World PDF

Author: Lawrence M. Wills

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2015-03-11

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1625648030

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Lawrence M. Wills here traces the literary evolution of popular Jewish narratives written during the period 200 BCE-100 CE. In many ways, these narratives were similar to Greek and Roman novels of the same era, as well as to popular novels of indigenous peoples within the Roman Empire. Yet, as a group, they demonstrated a variety of novelistic innovations: the inclusion of adventurous episodes, passages of description and of dialogue, concern with psychological motivation, and the introduction of female characters. Wills focuses on five novels: Greek Esther, Greek ,Daniel, Judith, Tobit, and Joseph and Aseneth.. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical works, he delineates the techniques and motifs of the Jewish novel, shows how the genre both initiated and distanced itself from nonfictional prose such as historical and philosophical writing, discusses its relation to Greco-Roman romance, and describes the social conditions governing its emergence and reception. Wills also places the novels in historical context, situating them between the Hebrew Bible, on the one hand, and subsequent developments in Jewish and Christian literature on the other. Wills sees the Jewish novel as a popular form of writing that provided amusement for an expanding audience of Jewish entrepreneurs, merchants, and bureaucrats. In an important sense, he maintains, it was a product of the "novelistic impulse": the impulse to transfer oral stories to a written medium to reach a more literate audience.

Documentality

Documentality PDF

Author: Jacqueline Arthur-Montagne

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2022-10-24

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 3110791927

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This volume unites scholars of classical epigraphy, papyrology, and literature to analyze the documentary habit in the Roman Empire. Texts like inscriptions and letters have gained importance in classical scholarship, but there has been limited analysis of the imaginative and sociological dimensions of the ancient document. Individual chapters investigate the definition of the document in ancient thought, and how modern understandings of documentation may (mis)shape scholarly approaches to documentary sources in antiquity. Contributors reexamine familiar categories of ancient documents through the lenses of perception and function, and reveal where the modern understanding of the document departs from ancient conceptions of documentation. The boundary between literary genres and documentary genres of writing appears more fluid than prior scholarship had allowed. Compared to modern audiences, inhabitants of the Roman Empire used a more diverse range of both non-textual and textual forms of documentation, and they did so with a more active, questioning attitude. The interdisciplinary approach to the "mentality" of documentation in this volume advances beyond standard discussions of form, genre, and style to revisit the document through the eyes of Greco-Roman readers and viewers.

What Are the Gospels?

What Are the Gospels? PDF

Author: Richard A. Burridge

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2004-08-09

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 9780802809711

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"The publication of Richard Burridge's What Are the Gospels? in 1992 inaugurated a transformation in Gospel studies by overturning the previous consensus about Gospel uniqueness. Burridge argued convincingly for an understanding of the Gospels as biographies, a ubiquitous genre in the Graeco-Roman world. To establish this claim, Burridge compared each of the four canonical Gospels to the many extant Graeco-Roman biographies. Drawing on insights from literary theory, he demonstrated that the previously widespread view of the Gospels as unique compositions was false. Burridge went on to discuss what a properly "biographical" perspective might mean for Gospel interpretation, which was amply demonstrated in the revised second edition reflecting on how his view had become the new consensus. This third, twenty-fifth anniversary edition not only celebrates the continuing influence of What Are the Gospels?, but also features a major new contribution in which Burridge analyzes recent debates and scholarship about the Gospels. Burridge both answers his critics and reflects upon the new directions now being taken by those who accept the biographical approach. This new edition also features as an appendix a significant article in which he tackles the related problem of the genre of Acts. A proven book with lasting staying power, What Are the Gospels? is not only still as relevant and instructive as it was when first published, but will also doubtlessly inspire new research and scholarship in the years ahead."-- Provided by publisher.

Blockbusters and the Ancient World

Blockbusters and the Ancient World PDF

Author: Chris Davies

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-03-21

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1350105015

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Following the release of Ridley Scott's Gladiator in 2000 the ancient world epic has experienced a revival in studio and audience interest. Building on existing scholarship on the Cold War epics of the 1950s-60s, including Ben-Hur, Spartacus and The Robe, this original study explores the current cycle of ancient world epics in cinema within the social and political climate created by September 11th 2001. Examining films produced against the backdrop of the War on Terror and subsequent invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, this book assesses the relationship between mainstream cinema and American society through depictions of the ancient world, conflict and faith. Davies explores how these films evoke depictions of the Second World War, the Vietnam War and the Western in portraying warfare in the ancient world, as well as discussing the influence of genre hybridisation, narration and reception theory. He questions the extent to which ancient world epics utilise allegory, analogy and allusion to parallel past and present in an industry often dictated by market forces. Featuring analysis of Alexander, Troy, 300, Centurion, The Eagle, The Passion of the Christ and more, this book offers new insight on the continued evolution of the ancient world epic in cinema.

Magic and Divination in the Ancient World

Magic and Divination in the Ancient World PDF

Author: Leda Ciraolo

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-10-01

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9004497366

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This collection of essays focuses on divination across the Ancient World from early Mesopotamia to late antiquity. The authors deal with the forms, theory and poetics of this important and still poorly understood ancient phenomenon.

Pillars in the History of Biblical Interpretation, Volume 2

Pillars in the History of Biblical Interpretation, Volume 2 PDF

Author: Stanley E. Porter

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2016-11-03

Total Pages: 526

ISBN-13: 1498292917

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This two-volume set is part of a growing body of literature concerned with the history of biblical interpretation. The ample introduction first situates key players in the story of the development of the major strands of biblical interpretation since the Enlightenment, identifying how different theoretical and methodological approaches are related to each other and describing the academic environment in which they emerged and developed. Volume 1 contains fourteen essays on twenty-two interpreters who were principally active before 1980, and volume 2 has nineteen essays on twenty-seven of those who were active primarily after this date. Each chapter provides a brief biography of one or more scholars, as well as a detailed description of their major contributions to the field. This is followed by an (often new) application of the scholar's theory. By focusing on the individual scholars and their work, the book recognizes that interpretive approaches arise out of certain circumstances, and that scholars are influenced by, and have influences upon, both other interpreters and the times in which they live. This set is ideal for any class on the history of biblical interpretation and for those who want a greater understanding of how the current field of biblical studies developed.