Gordon Williams – författare

It has long been assumed that the language of Roman poetry was constructed under the dictates of elaborately defined rules of rhetoric, and its content determined according to the system of comparable classifications called invention.  This belief has persisted in spite of the difficulty of fitting the works of Catullus, Horace, Virgil, Propertius, and Tibullus into such a rigid scheme.  In this book Gordon Williams demonstrates that, although Ovid and his successors did indeed assimilate their poetry to the rhetorical rules devised for prose, the earlier poets employed a quite different method. Williams sees this method as falling into either a metaphorical or metonymic mode, both of which permitted the poet “to say one thing and mean another.”  Delicate and often startling transitions of thought could be grasped—though not necessarily on first reading—by readers “assumed by the poet to have a special access to the poet’s process of thought.”  This access presupposed similarities of “education, social position, and sympathetic understanding.” Through close analyses of many poems, Williams shows how poets in the fifty years before Horace’s death exploited metaphor, metonymy, and a third device that he calls thematic anticipation to evoke subtle associations of thought.  In doing so he elucidates problems of Latin poems that have been generally misunderstood almost since they day they were written.

This book investigates how the sexual element in Shakespeare's works in complicated and compromised by the impact of print. Whether the issue is one of censorship and evasion or sexual redefinition, the fact that Shakespeare wrote in the first century of popular print is crucial. Out of the newly-accesible classical canon he creates a reconstituted idea pf the sexual temptress; and out of Counter-Reformation propaganda he fashions his own complex thinking about the prostitute. Shakespeare's theatrical scripts, meeting-ground for the spoken and written word, contribute powerfully to those socio-sexual debates which had been re-energised by print. Dr Williams teaches at the University of Wales, Lampeter. His previous book was A Dictionary of Sexual Language and Imagery in Shakespearean and Stuart Literature (Athlone, 1994) and forthcoming is a Glossary of Shakespeare's Sexual Usage (Athlone, 1997).

Change and Decline: Roman Literature in the Early Empire offers a nuanced exploration of the transformation and challenges faced by Roman literary culture during the so-called "Silver Age" of Roman literature. Delivered as part of the Sather Classical Lectures, the work critically examines the causes and manifestations of literary decline in the early Roman Empire, while grappling with questions of cultural growth, decay, and the interplay between societal and artistic values. The author engages with six thematic approaches to illuminate how Roman writers navigated the pressures of their political and cultural milieu, offering insights into their stylistic shifts, intellectual tendencies, and the broader social functions of literature in this transformative period.The book delves into the complex relationship between Roman and Greek cultural dominance, the pervasive influence of imperial politics on artistic expression, and the emotional and sensational tendencies that began to overshadow the rationality of the Augustan age. Through analyses of figures like Tacitus and Ovid, the work demonstrates how fear, escapism, and societal expectations reshaped literary priorities and led to adaptations both innovative and detrimental. Ultimately, Change and Decline argues that the adjustments imposed by external pressures often eroded the integrity of a once-vibrant tradition, marking a period of both literary transformation and decline.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1978.

Change and Decline: Roman Literature in the Early Empire offers a nuanced exploration of the transformation and challenges faced by Roman literary culture during the so-called "Silver Age" of Roman literature. Delivered as part of the Sather Classical Lectures, the work critically examines the causes and manifestations of literary decline in the early Roman Empire, while grappling with questions of cultural growth, decay, and the interplay between societal and artistic values. The author engages with six thematic approaches to illuminate how Roman writers navigated the pressures of their political and cultural milieu, offering insights into their stylistic shifts, intellectual tendencies, and the broader social functions of literature in this transformative period.The book delves into the complex relationship between Roman and Greek cultural dominance, the pervasive influence of imperial politics on artistic expression, and the emotional and sensational tendencies that began to overshadow the rationality of the Augustan age. Through analyses of figures like Tacitus and Ovid, the work demonstrates how fear, escapism, and societal expectations reshaped literary priorities and led to adaptations both innovative and detrimental. Ultimately, Change and Decline argues that the adjustments imposed by external pressures often eroded the integrity of a once-vibrant tradition, marking a period of both literary transformation and decline.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1978.

Under the Roman Empire Greek literature experienced a renaissance. This flowering of interest in the Classics was in part a revival of the traditional culture associated with the glorious past and in part a development of new forms such as the novel, the classical lecture and the erotic letter. This literature has traditionally been considerably underrated and the essays in this 1982 volume of Yale Classical Studies were collected in an attempt to draw attention to the literary excellence of some undeservedly neglected authors and to inspire more readers to take them seriously. As the editors say in their introduction: 'nowadays we look to papyrology for ocasional revelations of exciting new pieces of ancient literature, but there are masterpieces already on the shelves waiting to be noticed'. This book will be of interest to students of Greek literature and ancient hsitory, especially to those concerned with post-Hellenistic Greek culture.

British Theatre in the Great War deals with a theatrical phase customarily dismissed by those charting twentieth-century developments. What becomes clear is that assessment by unsuitable literary criteria has masked the importance of the war years in British theatrical history. In avoiding a texts bias, the book reveals a period of unsurpassed prosperity in which the stage's substantial contribution to the war effort is only one notable feature. That it also saw the commercial theater's absorption of Continental avant-gardeism by way of revue, the last great epoch of music hall, the rise of the Old Vic with a project in opera and Shakespeare, and the unprecedented popularity of opera everywhere--this was surely the most fruitful period of Thomas Beecham's theatrical career--is compelling argument for revaluation. In his reassessment of this period, Dr. Williams extensively examines scripts and press coverage, providing a comprehensive overview from popular pantomime to the specialist work of the private stage as well as discussion of such issues as working conditions and censorship.

Shakespeare's use of sexual language, imagery and erotic themes is extensive, varied, and although this is necessarily hard to establish, probably innovative at times. This glossary provides a first-hand guide to Shakespeare's sexual language, some of which is notoriously difficult to unravel and whose roots go back into earlier literature. Compiled by Gordon Williams, author of the authoritative three volume Dictionary of Sexual Language and Imagery in Shakespearean and Stuart Literature, this is a comprehensive but concise reference guide to sexual language and imagery in Shakespeare. Entries are cross-referenced and include references to textual examples where possible.