Overview

""The Poetics of Consent"" breaks new ground in Homeric studies by interpreting the Iliad's depictions of political action in terms of the poetic forces that shaped the Iliad itself. Arguing that consensus is a central theme of the epic, David Elmer analyzes in detail scenes in which the poem's three political communities - Achaeans, Trojans, and Olympian gods-engage in the process of collective decision making. These scenes reflect an awareness of the negotiation involved in reconciling rival versions of the Iliad over centuries. They also point beyond the Iliad's world of gods and heroes to the here-and-now of the poem's performance and reception, in which the consensus over the shape and meaning of the Iliadic tradition is continuously evolving. Elmer synthesizes ideas and methods from literary and political theory, classical philology, anthropology, and folklore studies to construct an alternative to conventional understandings of the Iliad's politics. ""The Poetics of Consent"" reveals the ways in which consensus and collective decision making determined the authoritative account of the Trojan War that we know as the Iliad.

Full Product Details

Author:   David F. Elmer (Harvard University)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.590kg
ISBN:  

9781421408262

ISBN 10:   1421408260
Pages:   336
Publication Date:   12 April 2013
Recommended Age:   From 17
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

"Acknowledgments A Note on Texts, Translations, and Transliterations Abbreviations Introduction: From Politics to Poetics Part I: Frameworks and Paradigms 1. The Grammar of Reception 2. Consensus and Kosmos: Speech and the Social World in an Indo- European Perspective 3. Achilles and the Crisis of the Exception 4. Social Order and Poetic Order: Agamemnon, Thersites, and the Cata logue of Ships Part II: The Iliad's Political Communities 5. In Search of Epainos: Collective Decision Making among the Achaeans 6. A Consensus of Fools: The Trojans' Exceptional Epainos 7. The View from Olympus: Divine Politics and Metapoetics Part III: Resolutions 8. The Return to Normalcy and the Iliad's ""Boundless People"" 9. The Politics of Reception: Collective Response and Iliadic Audiences within and beyond the Text Afterword: Epainos and the Odyssey Notes Bibliography Notes"

Reviews

David F. Elmer has written an excellent book that puts the boundaries socio-historic interpretation and textual semantics to a serious test. It is of great relevance to both historians and philologists... Overall, this is a great and thought-provoking book with a fascinating argument. -- Werner Tietz Bryn Mawr Classical Review

An excellent book that puts the boundaries socio-historic interpretation and textual semantics to a serious test. It is of great relevance to both historians and philologists... Overall, this is a great and thought-provoking book with a fascinating argument. -- Werner Tietz Bryn Mawr Classical Review The thesis that the Iliad's conflict-ridden communities in fact reinforce communitarian values is persuasive, the identification of those communities with the interpretive communities that propagated Homeric poetry is intriguing, and both of these ideas are sure to play a significant role in shaping the interpretative of epic poetry in the future. -- James Marks Phoenix If The Poetics of Consent were to find a broad readership, it could, as I believe it should, transform the face of Homeric scholarship. -- Roger Travis New England Classical Journal The book is remarkably well written and engaging, always seeking clear explanations of complex concepts. The book also synthesizes and extends the current state of scholarship on the Iliad, addressing, as well as any recent book, the different (often divergent) approaches to the politics and poetics of the epic. -- Dean Hammer Classical Journal

An excellent book that puts the boundaries socio-historic interpretation and textual semantics to a serious test. It is of great relevance to both historians and philologists... Overall, this is a great and thought-provoking book with a fascinating argument. -- Werner Tietz Bryn Mawr Classical Review The thesis that the Iliad's conflict-ridden communities in fact reinforce communitarian values is persuasive, the identification of those communities with the interpretive communities that propagated Homeric poetry is intriguing, and both of these ideas are sure to play a significant role in shaping the interpretative of epic poetry in the future. -- James Marks Phoenix If The Poetics of Consent were to find a broad readership, it could, as I believe it should, transform the face of Homeric scholarship. -- Roger Travis New England Classical Journal The book is remarkably well written and engaging, always seeking clear explanations of complex concepts. The book also synthesizes and extends the current state of scholarship on the Iliad, addressing, as well as any recent book, the different (often divergent) approaches to the politics and poetics of the epic. -- Dean Hammer Classical Journal The book is exemplary in approaching large poetic and cultural issues through details of language and patterns of formulaic usage. -- William G. Thalman American Journal of Philology

Author Information

David F. Elmer is an associate professor of the classics at Harvard University.

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