The End of Dialogue in Antiquity

Hardback

Main Details

Title The End of Dialogue in Antiquity
Authors and Contributors      Edited by Simon Goldhill
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:276
Dimensions(mm): Height 231,Width 155
Category/GenreLiterary studies - classical, early and medieval
ISBN/Barcode 9780521887748
ClassificationsDewey:809.926
Audience
Professional & Vocational

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 8 January 2009
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

'Dialogue' was invented as a written form in democratic Athens and made a celebrated and popular literary and philosophical style by Plato. Yet it almost completely disappeared in the Christian empire of late antiquity. This book, a general and systematic study of the genre in antiquity, asks: who wrote dialogues and why? Why did dialogue no longer attract writers in the later period in the same way? Investigating dialogue goes to the heart of the central issues of power, authority, openness and playfulness in changing cultural contexts. This book analyses the relationship between literary form and cultural authority in a new and exciting way, and encourages closer reflection about the purpose of dialogue in its wider social, cultural and religious contexts in today's world.

Author Biography

Simon Goldhill is Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of King's College. He has published widely on many aspects of Greek literature, including Reading Greek Tragedy (1986), Foucault's Virginity (1995), Who Needs Greek? (2002), and How to Stage Greek Tragedy Today (2007). He is in demand as a lecturer all over the world and is a regular broadcaster on radio and television.

Reviews

"The book's scope--from Thucydides and Plato, to Cicero and late sympotic literature, to the rabbinic tales and the Church Fathers--is wondrous. --BMCR