The Classical Plot and the Invention of Western Narrative (Paperback)

N.J. Lowe

ISBN 10: 0521604451 / ISBN 13: 9780521604451

Published by Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004

About this Item

Paperback. From Homer to Hollywood, the western storytelling tradition has canonised a distinctive set of narrative values characterised by tight economy and closure. This book traces the formation of that classical paradigm in the development of ancient storytelling from Homer to Heliodorus. To tell this story, the book sets out to rehabilitate the idea of 'plot', notoriously disconnected from any recognised system of terminology in recent literary theory. The first part of the book draws on current developments in narratology and cognitive science to propose a new way of formally describing the way stories are structured and understood. This model is then used to write a history of the emergence of the classical plot type in the four ancient genres that shaped it - Homeric epic, fifth-century tragedy, New Comedy, and the Greek novel - with new insights into the fundamental narrative poetics of each. This is the story of how western literature first developed its distinctive taste for the kind of tight, economical plotting still supreme in modern fiction and cinema. The book shows how this taste was formed in Greco-Roman antiquity out of a series of revolutions in storytelling. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780521604451

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Classical Plot and the Invention of Western Narrative (Paperback)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521604451
• ISBN 13: 9780521604451
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

This is the story of how Western literature first developed its distinctive taste for the kind of tight, economical plotting still employed in modern fiction and cinema. The book shows how this taste was formed in Greco-Roman antiquity out of a series of revolutions in storytelling, centered on Homer, early tragedy, Hellenistic comedy, and the Greek love-novels of the early centuries AD. Along the way, it draws on cognitive science and current literary theory to offer a resilient yet accessible new theory of what "plot" is and how it works.

Review

"A rare, even unique offering." Choice

"This book deserves attention from tose interested in deep structures of Greek and dependent literary traditions." Donald Lateiner, Ohio University