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Secret of the Muses Retold

其他書名	Classical Influences on Italian Authors of the Twentieth Century
出版	University of Chicago Press, 2000
主題	Education / GeneralLiterary Criticism / GeneralLiterary Criticism / European / Italian
ISBN	02264374779780226437477
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=YN2B_aJzODgC&hl=&source=gbs_api
EBook	SAMPLE

註釋Precious repositories of ancient wisdom? Musty relics of outmoded culture? Timeless paragons of artistic achievement? Hegemonic tools of intellectual repression? Just what are the classics, anyway, and why do (or should) we still pay so much attention to them? What is the literary canon? What is myth, and how do we use it?

These are some of the questions that gave rise to John Kirby's Secret of the Muses Retold. This new study of works by five twentieth-century Italian writers investigates the abiding influence of the Greek and Roman classics, and their rich legacy in our own day. The result is not only a splendid introduction to contemporary Italian literature, but also a lucid and stimulating meditation on the insights that writers such as Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino have tapped from the wellspring of ancient tradition.

Kirby's book offers an impassioned plea for the recuperation of the humanities in general, and of classical studies in particular. No expertise in Greek, Latin, Italian, or literary theory is presumed, and both traditional and postmodern perspectives are accommodated.