The cultural battle known as the Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns has most often been depicted as pitting antiquarian conservatives against the insurgent critics of established authority. One of the most public controversies of early modern Europe, the Quarrel served as a sly cover for more deeply opposed views about the value of literature and the arts. "The Shock of the Ancient" turns the canonical vision of those events on its head by demonstrating how the defenders of Greek literature - rather than clinging to an outmoded tradition - celebrated the radically different practices of the ancient world. At a time when the constraints of decorum and the politics of French absolutism quashed the expression of cultural differences, the ancient world presented a disturbing face of otherness. Larry F. Norman explores how the authoritative status of ancient Greek texts allowed them to justify literary depictions of the scandalous. "The Shock of the Ancient" surveys the diverse array of aesthetic models presented in these ancient works and considers how they both helped to undermine the rigid codes of neoclassicism and pave the way for the innovative philosophies of the Enlightenment. Broadly appealing to students of European literature, art history, and philosophy, this book is an important contribution to early modern literary and cultural debates.

About the Author
Larry F. Norman is associate professor of Romance languages and literatures, of theater and performance studies, and in the College at the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Public Mirror: Moliere and the Social Commerce of Depiction, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Reviews
"Witty, free of jargon, and filled with an encyclopedic knowledge of sources, as well as an up-to-date view of recent literary and cultural debates, this book will shed vivid new light on this important historical controversy." (John D. Lyons, University of Virginia)"



Book Information
ISBN 9780226591483
Author Larry F. Norman
Format Hardback
Page Count 296
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 567g
Dimensions(mm) 23mm * 16mm * 2mm