Plato's Use of Irony
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Construing the Elaborate Discourse of Thomas More's Utopia
California State University, San Bernardino CSUSB ScholarWorks Theses Digitization Project John M. Pfau Library 2006 Irony, rhetoric, and the portrayal of "no place": Construing the elaborate discourse of Thomas More's Utopia Davina Sun Padgett Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation Padgett, Davina Sun, "Irony, rhetoric, and the portrayal of "no place": Construing the elaborate discourse of Thomas More's Utopia" (2006). Theses Digitization Project. 2879. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2879 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the John M. Pfau Library at CSUSB ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses Digitization Project by an authorized administrator of CSUSB ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. IRONY, RHETORIC, AND THE PORTRAYAL OF "NO PLACE" CONSTRUING THE ELABORATE DISCOURSE OF THOMAS MORE'S UTOPIA A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, San Bernardino In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in English Composition by Davina Sun Padgett June 2006 IRONY,'RHETORIC, AND THE PORTRAYAL OF "NO PLACE": CONSTRUING THE ELABORATE DISCOURSE OF THOMAS MORE'S UTOPIA A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, San Bernardino by Davina Sun Padgett June 2006 Approved by: Copyright 2006 Davina Sun Padgett ABSTRACT Since its publication in 1516, Thomas More's Utopia has provoked considerable discussion and debate. Readers have long grappled with the implications of this text in order to determine the extent to which More's imaginary island-nation is intended to be seen as a description of the ideal commonwealth. -
The Limits of Irony: the Chronillogical World Of
THELIMITS OF IRONY The Chronillogical World of Martin Arnis' Time's Arrow s a work of Holocaust fiction, Martin Arnis' Time'sArrm is as A, oving and disturbing as it is ingenious; indeed, it is Amis' narrative ingenuity that is responsible for the work's moral and emotional impact. What moves and disturbs the reader is the multitude of ironies that result from the reversal of time- the "narrative conceitn (Diedrick 164) that structures and drives the novel.' In Time'sArrow the normal present-to-future progression becomes the movement from present to past and the normative convention of realistic fiction-the inability to foresee the future- becomes the inability to recall the past. A narrator in Amis' Einstein's Monsters describes the 20th-century as "the age when irony really came into its own" (37) and Time'sAwow is an ironic tour-de-force if ever there was one. The minor and major ironies generated by the time- reversal all follow from the most important effect of the trope- the reversal of all normal cause-effect relations. (The minor become major as the reverse becomes increasinglypmerse.) The irony is structural-formal when the reader recognizes that the novel is an inverted Bihhngsromn- detailing the devolution of the protagonist- and an autobiography told by an amnesiac; but as might be expected, the trope results in an array of more locally comic, and then, grimly dark ironies. Indeed, the work's most disturbing effects are the epistemological and, ultimately, onto- logical uncertainties which are the cumulative impact of the narrative method. -
Phaedrus Plato
Phaedrus Plato TRANSLATED BY BENJAMIN JOWETT ROMAN ROADS MEDIA Classical education, from a Christian perspective, created for the homeschool. Roman Roads combines its technical expertise with the experience of established authorities in the field of classical education to create quality video courses and resources tailored to the homeschooler. Just as the first century roads of the Roman Empire were the physical means by which the early church spread the gospel far and wide, so Roman Roads Media uses today’s technology to bring timeless truth, goodness, and beauty into your home. By combining excellent instruction augmented with visual aids and examples, we help inspire in your children a lifelong love of learning. Phaedrus by Plato translated by Benjamin Jowett This text was designed to accompany Roman Roads Media's 4-year video course Old Western Culture: A Christian Approach to the Great Books. For more information visit: www.romanroadsmedia.com. Other video courses by Roman Roads Media include: Grammar of Poetry featuring Matt Whitling Introductory Logic taught by Jim Nance Intermediate Logic taught by Jim Nance French Cuisine taught by Francis Foucachon Copyright © 2013 by Roman Roads Media, LLC Roman Roads Media 739 S Hayes St, Moscow, Idaho 83843 A ROMAN ROADS ETEXT Phaedrus Plato TRANSLATED BY BENJAMIN JOWETT INTRODUCTION The Phaedrus is closely connected with the Symposium, and may be regarded either as introducing or following it. The two Dialogues together contain the whole philosophy of Plato on the nature of love, which in the Republic and in the later writings of Plato is only introduced playfully or as a figure of speech. -
Posidippus' Equestrian Angelia
Mouseion, Series III, Vol. 16 (2019) 433–452 © 2019 Mouseion (published in 2019) Horse and Herald: Posidippus’ Equestrian Angelia Peter J. Miller Abstract / Résumé Posidippus’ epigrams for equestrian victors (the Hippika, AB 71–88) build on epi- nician convention by maintaining the central role of the herald’s proclamation— the angelia—in the representation of athletic achievement. In a few of these epigrams, however, Posidippus embeds the horse itself in postvictory rituals. For example, the horse brings the crown to the victor, replacing the figure of the herald who announced and crowned victors; or, in a narrative of the race’s aftermath, the horse, incredibly, chooses the victor. Posidippus’ horses, there- fore, act as causal agents for the glory of their owners, and his detailed descrip- tions transform the horse from flesh-and-blood equine to everlasting (literary) monument. Les épigrammes de Posidippe sur les victoires équestres (les Hippiques, 71-88 A.-B.) s’appuient sur une convention poétique propre aux épinicies qui maintient le rôle de la proclamation du héraut – l’angelia – dans la représentation de la réussite athlétique. Cependant, dans quelques-unes de ces épigrammes, Posidippe intègre le cheval lui-même au rituel marquant la victoire. Par exemple, le cheval apporte la couronne au vainqueur en remplacement de la figure du héraut qui annonce et cou- ronne les vainqueurs ; ou encore, dans le récit de l’après-course, le cheval choisit, de façon surprenante, le vainqueur. Les chevaux de Posidippe interviennent donc en tant qu’agents causaux dans la gloire de leur propriétaire. Ses descriptions détaillées trans- forment ainsi l’être de chair et de sang qu’est le cheval en un monument (littéraire) éternel. -
On the Arrangement of the Platonic Dialogues
Ryan C. Fowler 25th Hour On the Arrangement of the Platonic Dialogues I. Thrasyllus a. Diogenes Laertius (D.L.), Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 3.56: “But, just as long ago in tragedy the chorus was the only actor, and afterwards, in order to give the chorus breathing space, Thespis devised a single actor, Aeschylus a second, Sophocles a third, and thus tragedy was completed, so too with philosophy: in early times it discoursed on one subject only, namely physics, then Socrates added the second subject, ethics, and Plato the third, dialectics, and so brought philosophy to perfection. Thrasyllus says that he [Plato] published his dialogues in tetralogies, like those of the tragic poets. Thus they contended with four plays at the Dionysia, the Lenaea, the Panathenaea and the festival of Chytri. Of the four plays the last was a satiric drama; and the four together were called a tetralogy.” b. Characters or types of dialogues (D.L. 3.49): 1. instructive (ὑφηγητικός) A. theoretical (θεωρηµατικόν) a. physical (φυσικόν) b. logical (λογικόν) B. practical (πρακτικόν) a. ethical (ἠθικόν) b. political (πολιτικόν) 2. investigative (ζητητικός) A. training the mind (γυµναστικός) a. obstetrical (µαιευτικός) b. tentative (πειραστικός) B. victory in controversy (ἀγωνιστικός) a. critical (ἐνδεικτικός) b. subversive (ἀνατρεπτικός) c. Thrasyllan categories of the dialogues (D.L. 3.50-1): Physics: Timaeus Logic: Statesman, Cratylus, Parmenides, and Sophist Ethics: Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Symposium, Menexenus, Clitophon, the Letters, Philebus, Hipparchus, Rivals Politics: Republic, the Laws, Minos, Epinomis, Atlantis Obstetrics: Alcibiades 1 and 2, Theages, Lysis, Laches Tentative: Euthyphro, Meno, Io, Charmides and Theaetetus Critical: Protagoras Subversive: Euthydemus, Gorgias, and Hippias 1 and 2 :1 d. -
Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology
SELECT EPIGRAMS FROM THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY J. W. MACKAIL∗ Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. PREPARER’S NOTE This book was published in 1890 by Longmans, Green, and Co., London; and New York: 15 East 16th Street. The epigrams in the book are given both in Greek and in English. This text includes only the English. Where Greek is present in short citations, it has been given here in transliterated form and marked with brackets. A chapter of Notes on the translations has also been omitted. eti pou proima leuxoia Meleager in /Anth. Pal./ iv. 1. Dim now and soil’d, Like the soil’d tissue of white violets Left, freshly gather’d, on their native bank. M. Arnold, /Sohrab and Rustum/. PREFACE The purpose of this book is to present a complete collection, subject to certain definitions and exceptions which will be mentioned later, of all the best extant Greek Epigrams. Although many epigrams not given here have in different ways a special interest of their own, none, it is hoped, have been excluded which are of the first excellence in any style. But, while it would be easy to agree on three-fourths of the matter to be included in such a scope, perhaps hardly any two persons would be in exact accordance with regard to the rest; with many pieces which lie on the border line of excellence, the decision must be made on a balance of very slight considerations, and becomes in the end one rather of personal taste than of any fixed principle. For the Greek Anthology proper, use has chiefly been made of the two ∗PDF created by pdfbooks.co.za 1 great works of Jacobs, -
The Concept of Irony in Ian Mcewan's Selected Literary Works
Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci Filozofická fakulta Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Bc. Eva Mádrová Concept of Irony in Ian McEwan’s Selected Literary Works Diplomová práce PhDr. Libor Práger, Ph.D. Olomouc 2013 Prohlašuji, že jsem tuto diplomovou práci na téma “Concept of Irony in Ian McEwan’s Selected Literary Works” vypracovala samostatně pod odborným dohledem vedoucího práce a uvedla jsem všechny použité podklady a literaturu. V Olomouci dne Podpis I would like to thank my supervisor PhDr. Libor Práger, Ph.D. for his assistance during the elaboration of my diploma thesis, especially for his valuable advice and willingness. Table of contents Introduction 6 1. Ian McEwan 7 2. Methodology: Analysing irony 8 2.1 Interpreter, ironist and text 8 2.2 Context and textual markers 10 2.3 Function of irony 11 2.4 Postmodern perspective 12 3. Fiction analyses 13 3.1 Atonement 13 3.1.1 Family reunion ending as a trial of trust 13 3.1.2 The complexity of the narrative: unreliable narrator and metanarrative 14 3.1.3 Growing up towards irony 17 3.1.4 Dramatic encounters and situations in a different light 25 3.2 The Child in Time 27 3.2.1 Loss of a child and life afterwards 27 3.2.2 The world through Stephen Lewis’s eyes 27 3.2.3 Man versus Universe 28 3.2.4 Contemplation of tragedy and tragicomedy 37 3.3 The Innocent 38 3.3.1 The unexpected adventures of the innocent 38 3.3.2 The single point of view 38 3.3.3 The versions of innocence and virginity 40 3.3.4 Innocence in question 48 3.4 Amsterdam 50 3.4.1 The suicidal contract 50 3.4.2 The multitude -
Literary Quarrels
Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics (1) The Cicala's Song: Plato in the Aetia Benjamin Acosta-Hughes University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Version 1.2 © Benjamin Acosta-Hughes, [email protected] (2) Literary Quarrels Susan Stephens Stanford University Version 1.0 © Susan Stephens Abstract: Scholars have long noted Platonic elements or allusions in Callimachus' poems, particularly in the Aetia prologue and the 13th Iambus that center on poetic composition. Following up on their work, Benjamin Acosta-Hughes and Susan Stephens, in a recent panel at the APA, and in papers that are about to appear in Callimachea II. Atti della seconda giornata di studi su Callimaco (Rome: Herder), have argued not for occasional allusions, but for a much more extensive influence from the Phaedo and Phaedrus in the Aetia prologue (Acosta-Hughes) and the Protagoras, Ion, and Phaedrus in the Iambi (Stephens). These papers are part of a preliminary study to reformulate Callimachus' aesthetic theory. 1 The Cicala's Song: Plato in the Aetia* This paper prefigures a larger study of Callimachus and Plato, a study on which my Stanford colleague Susan Stephens and I have now embarked in our co-authored volume on Callimachus.1 Awareness of Platonic allusion in Callimachus is not new, although its significance has not really been appreciateda close reading of the two authors remains a real desideratum, and it is indeed this need that we hope our work will one day fulfill. The main focal points of the present paper are two passages of Callimachus, and two passages of Plato, that, read together, configure a remarkable intertextual dialogue on poetry, reading, and the inspired voice. -
Gristwold on Platonic Irony
84 Philosophy and Literature Charles L. Griswold, Jr. IRONY IN THE PLATONIC DIALOGUES I nterpreters of Plato have arrived at a general consensus to the Ieffect that there exists a problem of interpretation when we read Plato, and that the solution to the problem must in some way incorporate what has tendentiously been called the “literary” and the “philosophi- cal” sides of Plato’s writing. The problem is created by the fact that Plato wrote in dialogue form, indeed a specific type of dialogue form. The solution must somehow combine into a coherent theory of the “meaning” of the dialogues, the ways in which these texts work (such as the use of imagery, metaphor, myth, allusion, irony, as well as argu- ment). At the same time, there exists enormous disagreement about how one ought to move from these general observations to interpreta- tion of a particular text.1 The problem of interpretation lies not merely in the fact that Plato wrote dialogues. That alone would not necessarily present any herme- neutical issues of unusual difficulty. Plato’s distinctive use of the dialogue form creates the difficulties. The genre that we might call “the Platonic dialogue” is distinguished by several relevant characteristics. First, there is no character called “Plato” who speaks in any of the dialogues; indeed, “Plato” is mentioned twice in the entire corpus, once as being absent (Pho. 59b10), and once as being present (Apol. 38b6). Authorial anonymity is thus an important feature of the dialogues.2 At least ab initio, we are not justified in identifying Plato with any one of his characters. -
Comic Vision and Comic Elements of the 18 Century Novel Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Pamukkale Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi Sayı 25/1,2016, Sayfa 230-238 COMIC VISION AND COMIC ELEMENTS OF THE 18TH CENTURY NOVEL MOLL FLANDERS BY DANIEL DEFOE Gülten SİLİNDİR∗ Abstract “It is hard to think about the art of fiction without thinking about the art of comedy, for the two have always gone together, hand in hand” says Malcolm Bradbury, because the comedy is the mode one cannot avoid in a novel. Bradbury asserts “the birth of the long prose tale was, then the birth of new vision of the human comedy and from that time it seems prose stories and comedy have never been far apart” (Bradbury, 1995: 2). The time when the novel prospers is the time of the development of the comic vision. The comic novelist Iris Murdoch in an interview in 1964 states that “in a play it is possible to limit one’s scope to pure tragedy or pure comedy, but the novel is almost inevitably an inclusive genre and breaks out of such limitations. Can one think of any great novel which is without comedy? I can’t.” According to Murdoch, the novel is the most ideal genre to adapt itself to tragicomedy. Moll Flanders is not a pure tragedy or pure comedy. On the one hand, it conveys a tragic and realistic view of life; on the other hand, tragic situations are recounted in a satirical way. Moll’s struggles to live, her subsequent marriages, her crimes for money are all expressed through parody. The aim of this study is to analyze 18th century social life, the comic scenes and especially the satire in the novel by describing the novel’s techniques of humor. -
The Mocking Mockumentary and the Ethics of Irony
Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education Volume 11 | Issue 1 Article 8 December 2007 The oM cking Mockumentary and the Ethics of Irony Miranda Campbell Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/taboo Recommended Citation Campbell, M. (2017). The ockM ing Mockumentary and the Ethics of Irony. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, 11 (1). https://doi.org/10.31390/taboo.11.1.08 Taboo, Spring-Summer-Fall-WinterMiranda Campbell 2007 53 The Mocking Mockumentary and the Ethics of Irony Miranda Campbell “Shocking and Provocative.” “Death-defying satire.” “Edgy.” “A New Genre.” A quick survey of film critics’ reviews of Borat reveal language that is drenched in the rhetoric of innovation, avant-gardism, and subversion. The genre that Borat makes use of, the mockumentary, and is indeed generally seen as subversive, in that it undermines the documentary’s claim to objectively tell the truth. It is also a relatively new genre, that was spawned by the proliferation of available archival footage since the 1950s, but that has gained increasing popularity over the last 30 years, with This is Spinal Tap often cited as a key catalyzing film by directors and critics alike. As a genre, the mockumentary mobilizes irony, either in the parody of the form of the documentary or in the satirical treatment or critique of an issue. This mobilization can be relatively gentle and mild, such as parodies of the docu- mentary like The Ruttles that mockumentary theorists Jane Roscoe and Craig Hight identify as the first “level” of irony in the mockumentary. -
Cenatus Solis Fabulis? a Symposiastic Reading of Apuleius’ Novel
Cenatus solis fabulis? A Symposiastic Reading of Apuleius’ Novel MAAIKE ZIMMERMAN University of Groningen τῷ σὺ πάτερ Διόνυσε, φιλοστεφάνοισιν ἀρέσκων ἀνδράσιν, εὐθύμων συμποσίων πρύτανι, χαῖρε· δίδου δ’αἰῶνα, καλῶν ἐπιήρανε ἔργων πίνειν καὶ παίζειν καὶ τά δίκαια φρονεῖν. And so, father Dionysus, you who give pleasure to garlanded Banqueters and preside over cheerful feasts, My greetings to you! Helper in noble works, grant me a lifetime Of drinking, sporting and thinking just thoughts.1 1. Apuleius: His Public Speeches and His Novel In his novel, Apuleius does not address a mass audience, as he does in the Florida, the De deo Socratis, or the Apology. Novels, though they may sometimes have been read aloud to a small circle,2 belonged to the sphere of private reading;3 Schmitz for this reason explicitly excludes the novels from his study of Bildung und Macht in the Second Sophistic.4 In his novel, Apu- leius has the opportunity to enter—and to have his audience enter—into a more intricate intertextual and interdiscursive relationship with the cultural capital which he on the one hand possesses and applies, and which on the other hand he can expect to be within the grasp of his educated audience. In ————— 1 Ion Eleg. Fr. 26,13–16 West, with a translation by Campbell. 2 See my suggestion in the final section of this essay. 3 Cf. Cavallo 1996, 42–43, who explicitly points to lepido susurro and inspicere in Apul. Met. 1,1,1 as signals of ‘una lettura diretta, verisimilmente solitaria, intima e a mezza voce’.