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  3. Theocritus and the Invention of Fiction
  • Cited by 28
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    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      22 September 2009
      12 April 2007
      ISBN:
      9780511483059
      9780521865777
      9780521124294
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511483059
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.45kg, 192 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (229 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.29kg, 192 Pages
      • Subjects:
      Classical Studies, Classical Studies (General), Classical Literature
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    Subjects:
    Classical Studies, Classical Studies (General), Classical Literature
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    Book description

    The bucolic Idylls of Theocritus are the first literature to invent a fully fictional world that is not an image of reality but an alternative to it. It is thereby distinguished from the other Idylls and from Hellenistic poetry as a whole. This book examines these poems in the light of ancient and modern conceptions of fictionality. It explores how access to this fictional world is mediated by form and how this world appears as an object of desire for the characters within it. The argument culminates in a fresh reading of Idyll 7, where Professor Payne discusses the encounter between author and fictional creation in the poem and its importance for the later pastoral tradition. Close readings of Theocritus, Callimachus, Hermesianax and the Lament for Bion are supplemented with parallels from modern contemporary fiction and an extended discussion of the heteronymic poetry of Fernando Pessoa.

    Reviews

    Review of the hardback:'This well-written volume is now an essential addition to every classics and comparative literature library, and it is of particular value to those whose primary interest lies not only in Theocritus, but also in the development of fictional narrative literature.'

    Source: Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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