Seminal essays from one of the most prominent scholars of Hellenistic poetry
While people of previous ages relied on public performance as their chief means of experiencing poetry, the Hellenistic age developed what one may term a culture of reading. This was the first era in which poets consciously shaped their works with an eye toward publication and reception not just on the civic stage but in several media---in performance, on inscribed monuments, in scrolls. The essays in Peter Bing's collection explore how poetry accommodated various audiences and how these audiences in turn experienced the text in diverse ways. Over the years, Bing's essays have focused on certain Hellenistic authors and genres---particularly on Callimachus and Posidippus and on epigram. His themes, too, have been broadly consistent. Thus, although the essays in The Scroll and the Marble span some twenty years, they offer a coherent vision of Hellenistic poetics as a whole.
"One of the most prominent figures in American Hellenistic poetry scholarship, Peter Bing has long served as a model for acute criticism and careful reading. He has a marvelous ability to make readers rethink their preconceptions; his work is always beautifully argued and documented and his writing style is a pleasure to engage with."
---Benjamin Acosta-Hughes, Ohio State University
Jacket illustration: Film still from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, directed by Frank Capra, Columbia Pictures 1939. Courtesy of Sony Pictures.
"This volume will make a strong place for itself in the history of Greek literature and in that of Hellenistic literature. Bing has established himself as one of the leading voices in the field, and also as one of the more distinctive voices. His work on the literate reader, on epigram, on monuments, and on Posidippos, is exemplary and unique."
—James I. Porter, Professor of Classical Studies, University of Michigan
"One of the most prominent figures in American Hellenistic Poetry scholarship, Peter Bing has long served as a model for acute criticism and careful reading. He has a marvelous ability to make readers re-think their preconceptions; his work is always beautifully argued and documented and his writing style is a pleasure to engage with."
—Ben Acosta-Hughes, Associate Professor of Greek and Latin and Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Michigan
Copyright © 2009, University of Michigan. All rights reserved. Posted April 2009.
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