Vision and Narrative in Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Clitophon

This book examines the narrative complexities of Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Clitophon.

Helen Morales (Author)

9780521642644, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 December 2004

286 pages, 1 b/w illus.
22.3 x 14.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.51 kg

'This book is an important contribution to our understanding not only of Leucippe and Clithophon but also of ancient Greek novels in general, whose narrative strategies can be linked to, and decoded from, a complex visualistic discourse both within and outside the texts. Key elements of this poetics of vision and the novels' sophisticated design are ekphrastic descriptions, theatrical scenes, modes of viewing, and the visual impact of the female heroine, which Morales discusses in four chapters. All of them contain a series of stimulating close readings combined with a critical discussion of previous narratological approaches to the text, especially those by Stephen Nimis and Shady Bartsch.' Journal of Hellenic Studies

Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Clitophon, long regarded as the most controversial of the ancient Greek novels, is an outrageous tale of love and loss, of Phoenicians and philosophers, virginity tests and snuff murders. This book, the first published monograph on Achilles Tatius, is a study of Leucippe and Clitophon in its literary and visual contexts. It presents fresh insights into the work's narrative complexities and interpretative difficulties. It is particularly concerned with the novel's obsessions with the eye, with theories, descriptions, and metaphorics of the visual. It advances a reading that gives full play to the narrative's 'disgressions' - ekphrasis, sententia, blason, and spectacle - and discusses the politics of digressivity. This book is written to be accessible to non-specialists and all Greek is translated or paraphrased. It aims to contribute to a cultural history of viewing and to feminist literary criticism, as well as to the study of the ancient novel.

1. Introduction
2. Readers and reading
3. Description, digression and form
4. Gender, gaze and speech
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]