Poetics of Consent. Collective Decision Making and the Iliad

"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".
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An aparitie	February 2013
Autor	Elmer David F.
Dimensiuni	22,9x15,2 cm
Editura	Johns Hopkins University Press
Format	Hardback
Limba	Engleza
Nr pag	336