Author Description
Was The Experience Of Poetry—or A Cultural Practice We Now Call Poetry—continuously Available Across The Two-and-a-half Millennia From The Composition Of The Homeric Epics To The Publication Of Ben Jonson's Works And The Death Of Shakespeare In 1616? How Did The Pleasure Afforded By The Crafting Of Language Into Memorable And Moving Rhythmic Forms Play A Part In The Lives Of Hearers And Readers In Ancient Greece And Rome, Europe During Late Antiquity And The Middle Ages, And Britain During The Renaissance? In Tackling These Questions, This Book First Examines The Evidence For The Performance Of The Iliad And The Odyssey And Of Ancient Greek Lyric Poetry, The Impact Of The Invention Of Writing On Alexandrian Verse, The Performances Of Poetry That Characterized Ancient Rome, And The Private And Public Venues For Poetic Experience In Late Antiquity. It Moves On To Deal With Medieval Verse, Exploring The Oral Traditions That Spread Across Europe In The Vernacular Languages, The Place Of Manuscript Transmission, The Shift From Roll To Codex And From Papyrus To Parchment, And The Changing Audiences For Poetry. A Final Part Investigates The Experience Of Poetry In The English Renaissance, From The Manuscript Verse Of Henry Viii's Court To The Anthologies And Collections Of The Late Elizabethan Era. Among The Topics Considered In This Part Are The Importance Of The Printed Page, The Continuing Significance Of Manuscript Circulation, The Performance Of Poetry In Pageants And Progresses, And The Appearance Of Poets On The Elizabethan Stage. In Tracking Both Continuity And Change Across These Many Centuries, The Book Throws Fresh Light On The Role And Importance Of Poetry In Western Culture.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This book investigates whether the experience of poetry remained a continuous cultural practice from the era of Homeric epics through the death of William Shakespeare in 1616. Derek Attridge, a scholar of poetic form and literary theory, utilizes historical evidence and material culture to analyze how the crafting of language into rhythmic forms functioned within the lives of audiences across two and a half millennia. He argues that the evolution of poetic experience is inextricably linked to the shifting mediums of transmission, from oral performance to manuscript and print.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Analysis of the transition from oral performance to written text in Ancient Greece and Rome.
- Examination of the shift from scroll to codex and papyrus to parchment in medieval Europe.
- Investigation of the interplay between manuscript circulation and the rise of print culture in the English Renaissance.
- Case studies on the performance of poetry in courtly, public, and theatrical settings.
Scope Limits
- The analysis concludes at 1616 and does not address the development of poetry in the modern or contemporary eras.
- The study focuses primarily on Western cultural traditions and does not incorporate non-Western poetic practices.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars and critics recognize this work as a rigorous examination of the material history of poetic reception. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which serves as a specialized resource for students of literary history and classical studies.
Page Count:
432
Publication Date:
2019-01-01
ISBN-10:
0192569570
ISBN-13:
9780192569578
Cultural History
Literary Criticism
Poetry History