Birth of the symbol : ancient readers at the limits of their texts

The Resource Birth of the symbol : ancient readers at the limits of their texts

Label

Birth of the symbol : ancient readers at the limits of their texts

Title remainder

ancient readers at the limits of their texts

Statement of responsibility

Peter T. Struck

Language

eng

Summary

Nearly all of us have studied poetry and been taught to look for the symbolic as well as literal meaning of the text. Is this the way the ancients saw poetry? In Birth of the Symbol, Peter Struck explores the ancient Greek literary critics and theorists who invented the idea of the poetic "symbol." The book notes that Aristotle and his followers did not discuss the use of poetic symbolism. Rather, a different group of Greek thinkers--the allegorists--were the first to develop the notion. Struck extensively revisits the work of the great allegorists, which has been underappreciated. He links their interest in symbolism to the importance of divination and magic in ancient times, and he demonstrates how important symbolism became when they thought about religion and philosophy. "They see the whole of great poetic language as deeply figurative," he writes, "with the potential always, even in the most mundane details, to be freighted with hidden messages."--Publisher's description

Cataloging source

N$T

Dewey number

881/.010915

Index

index present

LC call number

PA3021

LC item number

.S76 2004eb

Literary form

non fiction

NAL call number

PA3021

NAL item number

(INTERNET)

Nature of contents

dictionaries
bibliography
theses

Context

Context of Birth of the symbol : ancient readers at the limits of their texts

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