Memories of Odysseus: Frontier Tales from Ancient Greece (Paperback)
OR try AbeBooks who may have this title (opens in new window).
Short Description for Memories of Odysseus Drawing on a range of authors and texts, Francois Hartog looks at accounts of actual travellers, as well as the way travel is used as a trope throughout ancient Greek literature, and finds that, instead of misrecognition, the Other is viewed with doubt and awe in the Homeric tradition.
Full description- Publisher: University of Chicago Press
- Published: 03 October 2001
- Format: Paperback 288 pages
- See: Full bibliographic data
- Categories: Literary Studies: Classical, Early & Medieval | History: Theory & Methods | European History | Ancient History: To C 500 CE | Classical History / Classical Civilisation | Western Philosophy: Ancient, To C 500 | Philosophy Of Mind
- ISBN 13: 9780226318530 ISBN 10: 0226318532
Full description for Memories of Odysseus
The conception of the Other has long been a problem for philosophers. Emmanuel Levinas, best known for his attention to the issue argued that the voyages of Odysseus represent the very nature of Western philosophy : "His adventure in the world is nothing but a return to his native land, a complacency with the Same, a misrecognition of the Other." In this text Francois Hartog examines the truth of Levinas' assertion and, in the process, uncovers a different picture. Drawing on a range of authors and texts, Hartog looks at accounts of actual travellers, as well as the way travel is used as a trope throughout ancient Greek literature, and finds that, instead of misrecognition, the Other is viewed with doubt and awe in the Homeric tradition. In fact, he argues, "The Odyssey" played a crucial role in shaping this attitude in the Greek mind, serving as inspiration for voyages in which new encounters caused the Greeks to revise their concepts of self and other.
