The fall of cities in the Mediterranean : commemoration in literature, folk-song, and liturgy / edited by Mary R. Bachvarova, Dorota Dutsch, Ann Suter

Published:: Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Copyright Date:: ©2016
Physical Description:: xvii, 277 pages : maps ; 24 cm
Additional Creators:: Bachvarova, Mary R., Dutsch, Dorota M., and Suter, Ann, 1938-

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Contents:

Foreword / Margaret Alexiou -- Introduction / Ann Suter -- The city lament genre in the ancient Near East / John Jacobs -- The destroyed city in ancient "world history": from Agade to Troy / Mary R. Bachvarova -- Mourning a city "empty of men": stereotypes of Anatolian communal lament in Aeschylus' Persians / Mary R. Bachvarova and Dorota Dutsch -- Seven against Thebes, city laments, and Athenian history / Geoffrey Bakewell -- Lament for fallen cities in early Roman drama: Naevius, Ennius, and Plautus / Seth A. Jeppesen -- City lament in Augustan epic: antitypes of Rome from Troy to Alba Longa / Alison Keith -- The fall of Troy in Seneca's Troades / Jo-Ann Shelton -- How to lament an Eternal City: the ambiguous fall of Rome / Catherine Conybeare -- Messengers, angels, and laments for the fall of Constantinople / Andromache Karanika -- "A sudden longing": lamenting the lost city of Smyrna / Gail Holst-Warhaft.

Summary:

"A body of theory has developed about the role and function of memory in creating and maintaining cultural identity. Yet there has been no consideration of the rich Mediterranean and Near Eastern traditions of laments for fallen cities in commemorating or resolving communal trauma. This volume offers new insights into the trope of the fallen city in folk song and a variety of literary genres. These commemorations reveal memories modified by diverse agendas, and contain responses to the narrative structures and motifs in which the meaning of memory-making about fallen cities resided, repurposing them or even denying their meaning or silencing them. Opening a new avenue of research into the Mediterranean genre of city lament, this book examines references to, or re-workings of, otherwise lost texts or ways of commemorating fallen cities in the extant texts, and with greater emphasis than usual on the point of view of the victors"--

Subject(s):

Genre(s):

Criticism, interpretation, etc

ISBN:

9781107031968 (hardback)
1107031966 (hardback)

Bibliography Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

View MARC record | catkey: 17952052