Politics of Form in Greek Literature

<i>The Politics of Form in Greek Literature</i> explores the relationship between form and political life specifically in Greek textual culture. In the last generation or so classicists (and their counterparts in other disciplines) have begun to pay greater attention to the socio-historical contexts of literary production and sought to historicize aesthetic practice. However historicism (and in particular New Historicism) is only one mode of approaching the question of form which is increasingly brought into dialogue with a number of other issues (e.g. gender). <br/><br/>Bringing together contributions from a range of experts this volume examines these and other related approaches assessing their limitations and discussing possibilities for the future. Individual chapters discuss an array of ancient authors including Homer Sophocles Euripides Plato Aristotle Callimachus and more and sketch out the specifically Greek contribution to the debate as well as the implications for other disciplines. What emerges from this book are new ways of thinking about form and indeed about politics that will be of value to scholars and students across the humanities and social sciences.