There are two great works that one may use for a deep study of the ancient literary theory and criticism. From Cambridge University Press, we have a gigantic work on Literary Criticism that tracks its history,
The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, which first volume constitute a very useful and complete survey in the Classical Criticism. From Oxford University Press, a
Oxford Readings in Classical Studies volume gives a general overlook in the Ancient Literary Criticism.
Both works serve the purposes of the intermediate student, and the bibliography makes sufficient knowledge to further study. Please compare these:
Oxford Readings in Classical Studies: Ancient Literary CriticismEdited by Andrew Laird
491 pages
“The volume makes widely available some important scholarship on the canonical texts of ancient rhetoric and poetics. Whilst there are numerous studies of general trends in classical criticism, this collection offers direct discussions of primary sources, which provide a useful companion to the Russell and Winterbottom anthology,
Ancient Literary Criticism. The volume contains a chronology, suggestions for further reading, a new translation of Bernays’ 1857 essay on katharsis, and an important introductory chapter addressing the tension in ancient literary criticism between its place in the classical tradition and its role in contemporary endeavours to reconstruct ancient culture.”
Contents
1. The Value of Ancient Literary Criticism, by Andrew Laird
2. Poetic Inspiration in Early Greece, by Penelope Murray
3. Homeric Professors in the Age of the Sophists, by N. J. Richardson
4. A Theory of Imitation in Plato’s
Republic, by Elizabeth Belfiore
5. Plato and Aristotle on the Denial of Tragedy, by Stephen Halliwell
6. Ethos and Dianoia: ‘Character’ and ‘Thought’ in Aristotle’s
Poetics, by A. M. Dale
7. Aristotle on the Effect of Tragedy, by Jacob Bernays
8. Literary Criticism in the Exegetical Scholia to the
Iliad: a Sketch, by N. J. Richardson
9. Stoic Readings of Homer, by A. A. Long
10. Epicurean Poetics, by Elizabeth Asmis
11. Rhetoric and Criticism, by D. A. Russell
12. Theories of Evaluation in the Rhetorical Treatises of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, by D. M. Schenkeveld
13. Longinus: Structure and Unity, by Doreen C. Innes
14. The Structure of Plutarch’s
How to Study Poetry, by D. M. Schenkveld
15. ‘Ars Poetica’, by D. A. Russell
16. Ovid on Reading: Reading Ovid. Reception in Ovid,
Tristia 2, by Bruce Gibson
17. Reading and Response in Tacitus’
Dialogus, by T. J. Luce
18. The Virgil Commentary of Servius, by Don Fowler
19. Ancient Literary Genres: a Mirage?, by Thomas G. Rosenmeyer
20. Criticism Ancient and Modern, by Denis Feeney
The volume includes a section with “Suggestions for Further Reading”.
The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism: Volume 1, Classical CriticismEdited by George A. Kennedy
396 pages.
“Surveying the beginnings of critical consciousness in Greece and proceeding to the writings of Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, and Hellenistic and Roman authors, this volume is not only for classicists but for those with no Greek or Latin who are interested in the origins of literary history, theory, and criticism.”
Contents
1. Early Greek views of poets and poetry, by Gregory Nagy;
2. Language and meaning in Archaic and Classical Greece, by George A. Kennedy;
3. Plato and poetry, by G. R. F. Ferrari;
4. Aristotle’s poetics, by Stephen Halliwell;
5. The evolution of a theory of artistic prose, by George A. Kennedy;
6. Hellenistic literary and philosophical scholarship, by George A. Kennedy and Doreen C. Innes; 7. The growth of literature and criticism at Rome, by Elaine Fantham;
8. Augustan critics, by Doreen C. Innes;
9. Latin criticism of the Early Empire, by Elaine Fantham;
10. Greek criticism of the Empire, by Donald A. Russell;
11. Christianity and criticism, by George A. Kennedy.
