Dana LaCourse Munteanu - Böcker

Decoding the Tragic in Aristotle posits that a specific form of involuntary action lies at the heart of Aristotle's conception of the tragic-a point that remains unexplained in the Poetics. This key insight is illuminated through Aristotle's ethical works, particularly the Nicomachean Ethics and Eudemian Ethics, where the philosopher discusses a type of counter-voluntary error (hamartia) rooted in ignorance of particulars. These references clarify the tragic mechanisms behind the most celebrated dramatic structures in Poetics chapters 13 and 14, which have long appeared inexplicably contradictory.Aristotle's notion of involuntariness is distinct from mere accident, chance, or misfortune. It represents the highest tragic degree when fully integrated into the action that tragedy depicts, evoking the most profound pity, fear, and a sense of wonder. While the ethical treatises help clarify Aristotle's aesthetic theory, they do not-as is sometimes claimed-impose a moral or didactic framework onto tragedy in response to Plato's critique. The Poetics remains focused on the structural conditions that best produce the tragic effect, understood as simultaneously emotional, cognitive, and psychologically compelling.Elsewhere, Aristotle does engage with moral dilemmas—such as Neoptolemus' in Sophocles' Philoctetes—and with ethical and rhetorical problems embedded in drama, aligning more closely with traditional philosophical approaches to tragedy. Yet he carefully distinguishes between what makes a tragedy effective in the Poetics and what tragedies are ethically good for in other contexts.Ultimately, Decoding the Tragic in Aristotle reveals Aristotle's concept of the tragic as both singular and forward-looking-anticipating contemporary insights from cognitive theory and neuroaesthetics, which sets it apart from other philosophical and literary accounts.

Scholars have often focused on understanding Aristotle's poetic theory, and particularly the concept of catharsis in the Poetics, as a response to Plato's critique of pity in the Republic. However, this book shows that, while Greek thinkers all acknowledge pity and some form of fear as responses to tragedy, each assumes for the two emotions a different purpose, mode of presentation and, to a degree, understanding. This book reassesses expressions of the emotions within different tragedies and explores emotional responses to and discussions of the tragedies by contemporary philosophers, providing insights into the ethical and social implications of the emotions.

This tightly focused collection of essays by a distinguished group of scholars analyses the degree to which expressions of emotion in ancient literature and art become an 'artistic' rather than a 'social' construct. To what degree do literary genres, philosophy and visual arts produce expectations for the arousal of certain emotions? Are the emotions of women, for example, represented differently in different genres? How and why do literary genres and visual arts concentrate on specific emotions and stylise them accordingly, and how do particular emotions relate to gender within literary texts? The book will be of interest to all students and scholars of classical literature and gender studies.Contributors: Peter J. Anderson, Associate Professor of Classics at Grand Valley State University, USA.Douglas L. Cairns, Professor of Classics at the University of Edinburgh, UK.Dorota Dutsch, Associate Professor of Classics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.Laurel Fulkerson, Associate Professor of Classics at Florida State University, USA.Margaret Graver, Professor of Classical Studies at Dartmouth College, USA.David Konstan, Professor Emeritus of Classics at Brown University and Professor, Department of Classics, New York University, USA.Anna McCullough, Assistant Professor, Department of Greek and Latin, Ohio State University, USA.Dana LaCourse Munteanu, Assistant Professor, Department of Greek and Latin, Ohio State University, USA.Évelyne Prioux, Researcher at the Université de Paris, France.Zara Martirosova Torlone, Associate Professor at Miami University, USA.Jessica Wissmann, formerly University of Iowa, currently affliiated with the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Germany.

Scholars have often focused on understanding Aristotle's poetic theory, and particularly the concept of catharsis in the Poetics, as a response to Plato's critique of pity in the Republic. However, this book shows that, while Greek thinkers all acknowledge pity and some form of fear as responses to tragedy, each assumes for the two emotions a different purpose, mode of presentation and, to a degree, understanding. This book reassesses expressions of the emotions within different tragedies and explores emotional responses to and discussions of the tragedies by contemporary philosophers, providing insights into the ethical and social implications of the emotions.

A Handbook to Classical Reception in Eastern and Central Europe is the first comprehensive English]language study of the reception of classical antiquity in Eastern and Central Europe. This groundbreaking work offers detailed case studies of thirteen countries that are fully contextualized historically, locally, and regionally.The first English-language collection of  research and scholarship on Greco-Roman heritage in Eastern and Central Europe Written and edited by an international group of seasoned and up-and-coming scholars with vast subject-matter experience and expertise Essays from leading scholars in the field provide broad insight into the reception of the classical world within specific cultural and geographical areas Discusses the reception of many aspects of Greco-Roman heritage, such as prose/philosophy, poetry, material cultureOffers broad and significant insights into the complicated engagement many countries of Eastern and Central Europe have had and continue to have with Greco-Roman antiquity