Who Needs Greek?: Contests in the Cultural History of ...

Who Needs Greek? is an interdisciplinary study of arguments on what ancient Greece has meant to western culture from the ancient world to today. The battles between artists and literary critics, historians and journalists, politicians and scholars, are often violent, hilarious, and always passionate. This cutting-edge cultural history ranges from ancient Greece via the Renaissance to modern opera, and treats a central question of culture in a way which will intrigue academics as well as a more general audience.Lively study of conflicts about the meaning of Greek-ness in the modern and ancient worlds.'The writing is vivid and the narration forceful ... twenty illustrations enliven a text which (Goldhill) clearly wrote with relish as well as commitment.' Journal of Hellenic Studies'Irony and playfulness are much in evidence throughout the pages of this delightful book ... it is all the more impressive that the author leaves us with a renewed sense of the genuine seriousness of contests over classical Greek language and culture in the long passage to modernity.' The Classical Review'... Goldhill enlists his reader in an argument which is scholarly, theoretical and thoroughly absorbing ... the overwhelming contribution that this book makes to textual studies is clear. Ultimately Who Needs Greek? demonstrates just how violent the cultural politics of identity are, and what is at stake if we forget that.' EnglishA fine performance. Including a full bibliography and a good index, this volume will serve graduate students and researchers studying Greek, comparative literature, literary theory, and even (humanistic) psychology and anthropology. ChoiceAlways a masterful storyteller, Goldhill marhshals evidence with elan...(he) has brought contemporary cultural theory to bear on the Classics with singular tact and persuasiveness...these tales are told wonderously well, and Goldhill lives up to his promise not just to trace literary influence but to demonstrate cultural impac