Aesthetic Experiences and Classical Antiquity
The Significance of Form in Narratives and Pictures

This book investigates the nature of aesthetic experience with the help of ancient material, exploring our responses to both narratives and images.

Jonas Grethlein (Author)

9781316642573, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 January 2020

315 pages
24.4 x 16.9 x 1.7 cm, 0.555 kg

In this bold book, Jonas Grethlein proposes a new dialogue between the fields of Classics and aesthetics. Ancient material, he argues, has the capacity to challenge and re-orientate current debates. Comparisons with modern art and literature help to balance the historicism of classical scholarship with transcultural theoretical critique. Grethlein discusses ancient narratives and pictures in order to explore the nature of aesthetic experience. While our responses to both narratives and pictures are vicarious, the 'as-if' on which they are premised is specifically shaped by the form of the representation. Form emerges as a key to how narratives and pictures constitute an important means of engaging with experience. Combining theoretical reflections with close readings, this book will appeal to art historians as well as to textual scholars.

Prologue: the Sirens' song
1. Introduction: the 'as-if' of aesthetic experience. Part I. Narratives: 2. Narratives: experiencing time
3. The reconfiguration of time in Heliodorus' Ethiopica
4. Beyond Heliodorus: Francois Ozon, Dans la maison
Part II. Pictures: 5. Pictures: the detached gaze
6. Seeing (in) ancient vases
7. Beyond ancient vase-painting: Rabih Mroue, The Fall of a Hair
Epilogue: the Sirens in Los Angeles.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], History of art & design styles: from c 1900 - [ACX], History of art & design styles: c 1800 to c 1900 [ACV], History of art & design styles: c 1600 to c 1800 [ACQ], History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE [ACG]