A01=David F. Elmer
ancient Greece
ancient Greek literature
Author_David F. Elmer
Category=DSBB
Category=NHC
collective decision making
consensus
consent
epic
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Homer
Iliad
oral tradition
politics
Product details
- ISBN 9781421408262
- Weight: 590g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 12 Apr 2013
- Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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"The Poetics of Consent" breaks new ground in Homeric studies by interpreting the Iliad's depictions of political action in terms of the poetic forces that shaped the Iliad itself. Arguing that consensus is a central theme of the epic, David Elmer analyzes in detail scenes in which the poem's three political communities - Achaeans, Trojans, and Olympian gods-engage in the process of collective decision making. These scenes reflect an awareness of the negotiation involved in reconciling rival versions of the Iliad over centuries. They also point beyond the Iliad's world of gods and heroes to the here-and-now of the poem's performance and reception, in which the consensus over the shape and meaning of the Iliadic tradition is continuously evolving. Elmer synthesizes ideas and methods from literary and political theory, classical philology, anthropology, and folklore studies to construct an alternative to conventional understandings of the Iliad's politics. "The Poetics of Consent" reveals the ways in which consensus and collective decision making determined the authoritative account of the Trojan War that we know as the Iliad.
David F. Elmer is an associate professor of the classics at Harvard University.
