There have been many studies of the uses which the ancient Greek and Roman novelists made of earlier literature, particularly epic, theatre and history. However, the relation of the novels to ancient philosophy remains under-studied. This volume is intended to open up some of the issues involved. In some cases, for example, novels make allusions to specific philosophical works, particularly the dialogues of Plato. This raises the question of how those references should be interpreted: as merely literary decoration, or as signs of a serious engagement on the part of the novelist with the ideas with which they are associated? In other cases, it seems possible to read the plots of the novels on a larger scale as embodying philosophical images and ideas, so that writing a novel becomes a different way of doing philosophy and didactically conveying identifiable philosophical ideas to a reader. At yet another level, the novelists inevitably concern themselves with moral qualities and questions which were also the subject of systematic philosophy in the ancient world: in these cases, it becomes necessary to read the novels within the context of commonly held philosophical positions of the period.
These are among the problems and approaches explored by the papers in this volume. They concentrate on the Greek novels, with papers devoted to Xenophon of Ephesus, Longus, Achilles Tatius, and Heliodorus, but also cover the satirical fiction of Lucian and the Latin novel of Apuleius. There are also discussions of philosophical themes and tropes that can be traced through a series of fictional texts. The collection is introduced by a survey of the place of philosophia in the culture and society of the early Imperial period. This volume is the result of a conference panel organised by the KYKNOS Research Centre for Ancient Narrative Literature, which is based in the Universities of Swansea, Lampeter and Exeter.
Table of Contents
Introduction. MICHAEL TRAPP, What is this Philosophia Anyway? J.R. MORGAN, The Representation of Philosophers in Greek Fiction. IAN REPATH, Emotional Conflict and Platonic Psychology in the Greek Novel. KOEN DE TEMMERMAN, Where Philosophy and Rhetoric Meet: Character Typification in the Greek Novel. MERIEL JONES, Andreia and Gender in the Greek Novels. KEN DOWDEN, Novel Ways of Being Philosophical Or A Tale of Two Dogs and a Phoenix. KONSTANTIN DOULAMIS, Stoic Echoes and Style in Xenophon of Ephesus. DANIEL OGDEN, The Love of Wisdom and the Love of Lies: The Philosophers and Philosophical Voices of Lucian's Philopseudes. FRITZ-GREGOR HERRMANN, Longus' Imitation: Mimēsis in the Education of Daphnis and Chloe. KAREN NÍ MHEALLAIGH, Philosophical Framing: The Phaedran Setting of Leucippe and Cleitophon. AHUVIA KAHANE, Disjoining Meaning and Truth: History, Representation, Apuleius' Metamorphoses and Neoplatonist Aesthetics. Abstracts. Index.
Reviews
- Daniel Donnet, l'Antiquité Classique 78 (2009), 296-297
- Nicola Dümmler, Museum Helveticum 66 (2009), 244
- Rui Carlos Fonseca, Euphrosyne (2009) 39, 450-452
Extra information
A pdf file containing the Table of Contents, Introduction and Indices is available here for free.
Subscribers to the on line version of Ancient Narrative can download the pdf file wth the full text of this volume at http://www.ancientnarrative.com/.
A list of all volumes that have appeared in the Ancient Narrative Supplementa is available here.
