Books in the series:
Homer - Barry Powell, Wisconsin (2003)
Classical Literature: Richard Rutherford, Oxford (2004)
Ancient Rhetoric - Tom Habinek, USC (2004)
Ancient History - Charles Hedrick, UC Santa Cruz (2004)
Classical Mythology - Jon Solomon, Arizona (2005)
Ancient Comedy - Eric Csapo, Toronto (2005)
Augustan Poetry - Richard Thomas, Harvard (2005)
Roman Satire - Dan Hooley, Missouri (2005)
Sophocles - Bill Allan, Harvard (2006)
Ancient Fiction - Gareth Schmeling, Florida (proposed here)
Euripides - Scott Scullion, Union College (proposal out for review)
Catullus - Julia Gaisser, Bryn Mawr (preparing proposal)
Aristophanes - Ian Ruffell, Glasgow (preparing proposal)
Aeschylus - Richard Seaford, Exeter (approached)
Plato - Diskin Clay, Duke (approached)
Other volumes planned on Greek and Roman Historiography, Greek Tragedy,
Ancient Literary Criticism, Vergil, Horace, Ovid.
MAIN BLURB:
The Classical World gave us the four basic literary genres: epic, lyric, drama, and the novel. The novel appeared late, in the first century BC/AD. While we do not know exactly how or why writers in the ancient world settled on the form of the novel, it could be described as an epic in prose, or a drama in prose, or as a dramatic history. In today’s tolerant classification system we call these works of extended narrative prose fiction novels, but then argue about the meaning of fiction. The ancient novel owes much of its content of “manners” to New Comedy and much of its erotic display to love poetry.
Five more or less complete Greek (plus twenty or so fragmentary) novels survive: Chariton’s Callirhoe, Xenophon’s Anthia, Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe, Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe, Heliodorus’ Charicleia; plus three Latin novels: Petronius’ Satyrica, Apuleius’ Metamorphoses, andthe anonymous Apollonius of Tyre.
In addition to the above canonical novels we will consider several works of fiction which scholars now usually refer to as “fringe novels.” These are novels about fantastic travel by Lucian, Antonius Diogenes, and Euhemerus, which we might call science fiction. Another group of novels will be discussed under the open-ended title of "historical novels:" Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, the Ninus Romance, Parthenope, Pseudo-Callisthenes’ Life of Alexander. Like Samuel Richardson in his novel Pamela (1740) “Chion of Heraclea” wrote a novel in letters; the anonymous Life of Aesop provides a fictional and amusing account of the life of a slave. And then we look at novels which are built around religious experiences and holy men: Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana and Heroicus; Pseudo-Clement’s Recognitions; the Apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. As the pagan world became Christian, so the pagan novel becomes Christian and a tool for the edification of the faithful: the ancient novel, full of the lives of young lovers, disappears, replaced by equally fictitious lives of saints.
The ancient Greek novel lives on, however, in the eastern part of the Roman Empire in Byzantine adaptations by writers like Macrembolites, Prodromus, and Manasses. After having lain dormant for centuries in the west, the Greek novels are eventually translated into modern languages, and within a few years they become the basis for the rise of the modern novel. Samuel Richardson uses Heliodorus in his novel Pamela, as does Fielding, Cervantes and others.
This book will provide a survey of the ancient novel, placing these works in their historical and literary context. It will examine the genre of the novel and the relationship of the ancient novel with early modern fiction.
