Xenophons Other Voice: Irony as Social Criticism in the 4th Century BCE

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This volume explores irony in its essence, saying other than one actually means in the collected works of Xenophon. Xenophons Other Voice argues that there are two voices in the author: one ostensible at the level of the literal text, which is available to everyone, while the sub-title designates the other voice, which is less obvious to the reader and indeed, an ironic one. It presents a unified view of the authors entire corpus and argues that the function of Xenophontic irony is to offer critiques of the societies in which he finds himself. Rejecting both non-ironic and Straussian interpretations of Xenophon's writings, Yun Lee Too offers a wholly original perspective on the contemporary debate of how he should be read, which is underpinned by a series of incisive readings of the individual works. Beginning with Xenophons representation of an ironic Socrates, who condemns the contemporary city and its more prominent citizens, the book moves on to consider how the author develops his own approach to irony. He deploys irony to criticize aspects of Athenian society, such as its understanding of wealth, its armed forces and sophistic education. The book then turns to his treatment of other Hellenic societies, including the Spartan city-state and laws, kingship in Syracuse and war amongst the Greek states. It finally considers Persia, covering Xenophon's depiction of Cyrus the Great and the expedition with Cyrus the Younger.

Reviews

This is a thought-provoking and original approach to Xenophon. It ranges across the whole of Xenophons corpus and with remarkable clarity and concision argues that scholars have missed a fundamental aspect of Xenophons work: their ironic takes on their subject matter. -- Timothy Duff, Professor of Classics, University of Reading, UK

Author Bio

Yun Lee Too is an independent scholar based in the UK.