Publications

Publication details [#26233]

Svenbro, Jesper. 1993. Phrasikleia: An anthropology of reading in Ancient Greece. Translated from the French by Janet Lloyd. Cornell University Press. xiv + 233 pp.
Publication type
Book – monograph
Publication language
English
Language as a subject

Annotation

In this "participant" account of the metaphors through which the Ancient Greek thought about reading, S. considers reading and writing as two aspects of a speech act, his interest lying in the sociology of the performance. The main issues addressed are the relationship (of tension) between reader and writer, the oral and the written, and the besetting question how "silent writing" can find a voice in a culture obsessed with the idea of 'resounding renown'.

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