Literature in English is hardly ever entirely in English. Contact with other languages takes place, for example, whenever foreign languages are introduced, or if a native style is self-consciously developed, or when aspects of English are remade in the image of another language. Since the Renaissance, Latin and Greek have been an important presence in British poetry and prose. This is partly because of the importance of the ideals and ideologies founded and elaborated on Roman and Greek models. Latin quotations and latinate English have always been ways to represent, scrutinize, or satirize the influential values associated with Rome. The importance of Latin and Greek is also due to the fact that they have helped to form and define a variety of British social groups. Lawyers, Catholics, and British gentlemen invested in Latin as one source of their distinction from non-professionals, from Protestants, and from the unleisured. British attitudes toward Greek and Latin have been highly charged because the animus that existed between groups has also been directed toward these languages themselves. English Literature and Ancient Languages is a study of literary uses of language contact, of English literature in conjunction with Latin and Greek. While the book's emphasis is literary, that is formal and verbal, its goal is to discover how social interests and cultural ideas are, and are not, mediated through language.

About the Author
Kenneth Haynes is Assistant Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, Brown University. He is co-editor of Horace in English (Penguin 1996) and of the first scholarly editions of two major works by Swinburne (forthcoming from Penguin). He is also co-editor, with Peter France, of The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English, Volume 4: 1790-1890 (forthcoming).

Reviews
This is a valuable book for students on literature courses that combine Classics with English or a modern language. It is full of interesting examples which open up new areas of investigation. It is also of value to Anglophone educators in the ancient languages as it will enable them to point up the influences of Latin and Greek on English. This is an inexpensive paperback edition (with corrections) of the original publication of 2003. * John Bulwer, Bryn Mawr Reviews *
I've learned a lot from it and enjoyed the experience of reading it. If this is Professor Haynes's 'initial survey' of his field, I look forward with eager expectation to his future, fuller-length studies. * Essays in Criticism *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199261901
Author Kenneth Haynes
Format Hardback
Page Count 226
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 422g
Dimensions(mm) 223mm * 144mm * 18mm