Theocritus and Things: Material Agency in the Idylls

Lilah Grace Canevaro

Open Access Published by Edinburgh University Press 2023

Theocritus and Things

Material Agency in the Idylls

Lilah Grace Canevaro

In the series Ancient Cultures, New Materialisms

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781399517515

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book contributes to the literary-theoretical field of Material Ecocriticism, expanding its chronological remit, and is the first to apply it to Classics. Material Ecocriticism has been described as an exercise in listening – and it is to a series of underrepresented agents (women, nature, the nonhuman) in the poetry of Theocritus that this book urges us to listen. This ‘from below’ reading that allows nature and materiality their agency, that sees objects and the labour behind them, gives a new way in to the paradoxes of Hellenistic pastoral poetry: the urban backdrop to bucolic poetry, the artifice of the locus amoenus. This book reveals a detailed picture of material agency and a diverse cast of characters human and nonhuman in Theocritus’ Idylls, showing that while the poetry might be paradoxical it is not rarefied. And through a dark-ecological reading it highlights the darkness that undercuts the idyll.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	x
Introduction: Material Agency Open Access Download PDF	1
1. The Cup
Material Ecocriticism: An Exercise in Listening Open Access Download PDF	11
Boundaries: Author, Genre, Tradition Open Access Download PDF	23
Oiko-criticism and Dark Ecology: Revisiting Hesiod’s Farm Open Access Download PDF	37
2. The Woman
Material Feminism: Changing Nature Open Access Download PDF	44
Idyll 1: Ekphrasis and Materiality Open Access Download PDF	48
Idyll 2: Reading Bodies Open Access Download PDF	66
Idyll 15: Women’s Work Open Access Download PDF	81
3. The Fisherman and the Rock
Idylls 7 and 21: Imagined Landscapes Open Access Download PDF	91
Idyll 23: Vital Stone Open Access Download PDF	113
Excursus: San Sperate Open Access Download PDF	140
4. The Plaited Trap
Idyll 1: Creative Matter Open Access Download PDF	146
Idyll 28: Emigration and Collaboration Open Access Download PDF	155
From Distaffs to Guineas Open Access Download PDF	169
5. Beyond the Cup
Idylls 6 and 11: His Monstrous Materials Open Access Download PDF	178
The Pipes Are Calling Open Access Download PDF	186
Slàinte Open Access Download PDF	195
A Concluding Excursus: Marsden Open Access Download PDF	202
Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	211
Index Locorum Open Access Download PDF	223
Subject Index Open Access Download PDF	226

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 240
Illustrations
- Other: 11 black and white illustrations
Keywords: Classics & Ancient History

eBook

Published: May 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781399517515