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9780198724285

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This important book sheds light on four quite different fields: Greek poetic usage in its greatest age, and German, in its; translation studies; and, above all, poetic theory. The most important outcome is a new and greatly enhanced understanding of metonymy. Crucially, Matzner's theory of metonymy insists on the primacy of literary usage, and he conducts his theorizing, as all such theorizing should be conducted, as a negotiation between existing theory and significant literary instances. In the process, the limitations of existing theory- still stuck in the world of Greco-Roman rhetoric, with or without some pointers (but little more) from Roman Jakobson and some distractions from cognitive linguistics-are patiently, lucidly, and sensitively exposed. This is a work of great acumen and striking originality. * Professor Michael Silk, King's College London * Matzner's study makes a unique contribution to ancient literary criticism and rhetorical theory, and to theories of metaphor and figurative language more generally. A great strength of his approach lies in his deft orchestration of a Formalist focus on usage and aesthetic aspects of metonymy that produces a far-ranging and focused analysis. As the trope is central to ancient imagery, and yet has been poorly understood since Aristotle, we should be all the more grateful to Matzner for his lucid approach to key problems in defining its parameters and illuminating its intricacies. * Professor Nancy Worman, Barnard College and Columbia University *

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Sebastian Matzner is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature at King's College London, where he earned his Ph.D. in Classics and Comparative Literature in 2012. His doctoral thesis, entitled 'The Forgotten Trope: Metonymy in Poetic Action', won the University of Heidelberg's Prize for Classical Philology and Literary Theory and he was subsequently awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship to pursue his postdoctoral research project 'Beautiful Tyrants: Postcolonial Reflections on Philhellenism in Rome and Germany' at the University of Oxford. After lectureships in Classics and Latin Language and Literature at Oxford and the University of Exeter respectively, he returned to King's College London in September 2015.

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