CLA260H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Euripides
Document Summary
Classics is almost entirely literature" (p115 in the textbook). It might be added that until relatively recently literature was almost entirely poetry. This is not obvious to us for two reasons: The prominence of the prose novel as a literary form (since the mid- twentieth century). It is also worth recalling in this context that the use of the word. Literature" to mean anything more precise than writings" is also relatively recent in that it only really starts around 1800. One of the categories which is used to structure the study of literature is genre. Muse (note the distinction from [epic], where the muse speaks through the poet), a personal friend, a lover, a god, a personified abstraction, or a natural object. ". These names derive from their greek archetypes: epic starting with. In practice, the significance of genre for readers of texts is that it provides a set of conventions and expectations, as a guide to their understanding.
