Fiction as History

Regular price €92.99
2nd century ad
A01=G. W. Bowersock
achilles tatius
aeschylus
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
ancient greece
ancient history
ancient rome
Author_G. W. Bowersock
automatic-update
Category1=Fiction
Category=DSBB
Category=FC
Category=JBCC9
Category=JPA
Category=NHC
Category=QRAX
Category=QRM
christian gospel narratives
christian rome
classical literature
COP=United States
Delivery_Pre-order
early christian era
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
fictional truths
greek
historians
historical
historical truths
history
italy
Language_English
latin
literary criticism
PA=Temporarily unavailable
pagan fiction
political history
political science
Price_€50 to €100
PS=Active
rome
social attitudes
softlaunch
writing

Product details

  • ISBN 9780520414440
  • Weight: 454g
  • Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
  • Publication Date: 04 Jun 2024
  • Publisher: University of California Press
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Product Form: Hardback
  • Language: English
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Using pagan fiction produced in Greek and Latin during the early Christian era, G. W. Bowersock investigates the complex relationship between "historical" and "fictional" truths. This relationship preoccupied writers of the second century, a time when apparent fictions about both past and present were proliferating at an astonishing rate and history was being invented all over again. With force and eloquence, Bowersock illuminates social attitudes of this period and persuasively argues that its fiction was influenced by the emerging Christian Gospel narratives.

Enthralling in its breadth and enhanced by two erudite appendices, this is a book that will be warmly welcomed by historians and interpreters of literature.

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 1994. 
G.W. Bowersock is Professor Emeritus of Ancient History at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Among his many books are Roman Arabia and Hellenism in Late Antiquity. He is coeditor of A. D. Momigliano: Studies on Modern Scholarship. His most recent book is The Crucible of Islam.