The thesis examines the imagery of Archaic Greek lyric poetry and its relation to the 'here and now' and to the implied context of performance. Chapter One sets out the conceptual programme and establishes a critical vocabulary. Various theoretical notions are discussed which are drawn from linguistics (deixis and deictic field), philosophy (reference, language games, and possible worlds), and modern literary theory (fictional worlds and text worlds); some new critical tools are established (,imaginative worlds', visual analogies and 'representational planes', the idea of 'degrees of reference'). Chapter Two sets the scene by looking at specific examples drawn from sympotic imagery shared by pottery and poetry. The rest of the thesis exemplifies the theory set out initially through a series of close readings from a broad selection of Archaic Greek monody. The close readings start with smaller scale fragments which conjure up worlds corresponding to circumscribed situations, and progress to poems which conjure up more extensive worlds. Chapters Three, Four, and Five look at diverse kinds of erotic poetry drawn respectively from Anacreon, Ibycus, and Archilochus. Chapter Six takes as its subject- matter the martial elegy of Callinus, Tyrteus, and Mimnermus. Chapter Seven moves from poetry which conjures up a markedly heroic world to poetry which conjures a contrasting unheroic world: the iambic poetry of Hipponax. Chapter Eight turns to a political poem by Solon. Chapter Nine concludes the thesis in a ring composition by returning to erotic poetry (Sappho's) and to the theoretical considerations set out in Chapter One.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:559804 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Cazzato, Vanessa |
| Publisher | University of Oxford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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