Lyric texts and lyric consciousness : the birth of a genre from archaic Greece to Augustan Rome

Lyric Texts and Lyric Consciousness presents a model for studying the history of lyric as a genre. Prof Miller draws a distinction between the work of the Greek lyrists and the more condensed, personal poetry that we associate with lyric. He then confronts the theoretical issues and presents a sophisticated, Bakhtinian reading of the development of the lyric form from its origins in archaic Greece to the more individualist style of Augustan Rome. This book will appeal to classicists and, since English translations of passages from the ancient authors are provided, to those who specialise in comparative literature. Lyric Texts And Lyric Consciousness Traces The Organic Development Of The Lyric Form From Archaic Greece To Augustan Rome. Professor Miiler Distinguishes Between Early Greek Lyric, A Largely Oral Phenomenon, And The More Condensed Personal Poetry That We Now Think Of As Lyric. He Then Offers An Original Genre Theory Which Meets The Demands Of Contemporary Literary Theory. The Book Examines Different Forms Of Poetic Subjectivity Projected By Ancient Authors - Such As Archilochus, Sappho, Catullus And Horace - Through A Close Reading Of Both Their Texts And Contexts. Miller Argues That What Is Considered Lyric - A Short Personal Poem Which Reveals A Reflexive Subjective Consciousness - Is Only Possible In A Culture Of Writing. It Is The Lyric Collection Which Creates Literary Consciousness As We Know It. This Consciousness Also Requires A Social Structure Where Individuals Can Speak In Their Own Names, Not Merely In That Of Their State Or Class. It Is Necessary Throughout To Rethink What We Mean By Lyric, Genre And Subjectivity. The Author, Trained Both As A Classicist And A Comparatist, And Having Published On Lyric Poetry From Sappho To Mallarme, Is Uniquely Qualified To Bring Together These Divergent Perspectives.--book Jacket. 1. The Subject Of The Text -- 2. Epos And Iambos Or Archilochus Meets The Wolfman -- 3. De Generibus Disputandum Est -- 4. The Garden Of Forking Paths: Catullus And The Birth Of The Collection -- 5. A Poet's Place: Sappho And The Melic Discourse Of Archaic Greece -- 6. Sapphica Puella: The Triple-faceted Object Of Catullan Desire -- 7. Rome, Alexandria, And The Politics Of Lyric -- 8. Horace, Mercury, And Augustus -- 9. Conclusion: Of Writings And Subjects. Paul Allen Miller. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 211-229) And Index. First published in 1994. Lyric Texts and Lyric Consciousness presents a model for studying the history of lyric as a genre. Professor Miller drawls a distinction between the work of the Greek lyrists and the more condensed, personal poetry that we associate with lyric. He then confronts the theoretical issues and presents sophisticated, Bakhtinian reading of the development of lyric form from its origins in archaic Greece to the more individualist style of Augustan Rome. This book will appeal to classicists and since English translation of passes from ancient authors are provided, to those who specialise in comparative literature.