Classical Indiscretions: A Millennial Enquiry into the Status of the Classics - Softcover

Bettini, Maurizio

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0715629700 ISBN 13: 9780715629703

Publisher: Bristol Classical Press, 2001

Synopsis

Maurizio Bettini argues that oral culture, because it does not have an inexhaustible memory at its disposal, tends to preserve its cultural inheritance. But written culture forgets nothing: but when everything can be recalled or somehow retrieved, the problem becomes what to remember and what to consign to oblivion.

This provocative book, written with a light touch, rooted in the Classics but ranging over the whole of Western literary culture, addresses many of the major issues that face us at the turn of the millennium. What is our shared cultural currency? What use - good or bad - do we make of it? Why should anyone involve themselves with the Classics? Features and themes of our time – the relentless anniversary, the magpie nature of the anthology, the urge for instant gratification, the attraction of the cultural canon, the way writing can imprison - are brought together in a passionate plea for the Classics as essentially impervious to these vulgar urges of our age - the Age of Indiscretion.

About this title

About the Author:

Classical Philology at the University of Siena, Italy, and at the University of California at Berkeley. His publications include The Portrait of the Lover.

Review:

Maurizio Bettini is one of the most original thinkers currently working in the field of Classics. Reading Classical Indiscretions is an unsettling experience --Bettini tickles the intellectual fancy but at the same time raises profound questions about the study of Classics at this millennial moment. This book will intrigue and provoke anyone concerned with the intersection of antiquity and modernity.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bristol Classical Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0715629700
• ISBN 13: 9780715629703
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192