Emotion, Genre and Gender in Classical Antiquity

The essays in this collection approach the study of emotion in classical antiquity by emphasizing the less than well explored connection between genre and emotion, as well as the gender-based peculiarities of emotional representation in classical literature, on stage and in painting. "Genre" here is the literary category most Roman and Greek critics would have recognized--such as satire, epic, tragedy, comedy, epigram etc. The contributors home in on how particular emotions were expressed in particular genres and how genres were expected to arouse an audience's emotions. The editor, Munteanu (classics, Ohio State U.), suggests we can think of emotional representations in classical antiquity as artistic constructs rather than simply social ones, and the manner that ancient authors were aware of and exploited these constructs is a central concern for their analysis. They also bring genre to bear on the way men and women expressed emotions, which Munteanu suggests helps to illuminate gender-relations and expectations, such as a pervasive but unspoken uneasiness about the active role women had in selecting lovers. The contributors are mostly American professors of classics and relevant ancient languages. Distributed by International Publishers Marketing (IPM). Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)