Radical Formalisms: Reading, Theory, and the Boundaries of the Classical

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Description

The term "radical formalism" refers to strategies aimed at defamiliarising and revitalising conventional modes of formalistic reading and theorising form. These strategies disrupt and unsettle established norms while incorporating a metadiscursive awareness of their broader political implications. This volume presents a radical reconceptualisation of literary works from Greek and Roman antiquity. Engaging in an ongoing dialogue with critical theory and postcritique, as well as drawing inspiration from traditions rooted in Black art, poetry and philosophyboth directly and indirectly connected to the classical traditionthe essays in this collection explore subversions of canonical norms and resistances to the hegemony of textual order. This collection not only provides new, provocative insights into a corpus of texts that has exerted a lasting impact on modern literature and philosophy, but also challenges current interpretive methods, recasting the very practice of reading in relation to form, poetics, language, sound, temporalities and textuality.

Reviews

This volume provocatively explores the aesthetic and political possibilities of deconstructionist and postcritical approaches to form in ancient texts. While readers may variously be stimulated, challenged, or infuriated by its close and transparently subjective engagement with phenomenological aspects of reading, Radical Formalisms offers classical studies a fresh critical path forward. -- David Christenson, Professor of Classics, University of Arizona, USA
A joyous collection by a constellation of star scholars. Mind-expanding, political and systematically committed to the affordances of literary form from the roots: a veritable wake-up call to classical philology. -- David Fearn, Professor of Greek, University of Warwick, UK

Author Bio

Sarah Nooter is Professor of Classics, Theatre, and Performance Studies at the University of Chicago, USA. Mario Tel is Professor of Rhetoric, Comparative Literature, and Ancient Greek and Roman Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, USA.