Who Needs Greek Contests in the Cultural History of Hellenism [Hardcover]

Lively study of conflicts about the meaning of Greek-ness in the modern and ancient worlds.Who Needs Greek? is an accessible, illustrated, interdisciplinary study of arguments over 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 dons, are often violent to the point of bloodshed, often hilarious, and always passionate. This is a cutting-edge cultural history that ranges from ancient Greece via the Renaissance to modern opera, and treats a central question of culture in a way which will excite both academics and a more general audience.Who Needs Greek? is an accessible, illustrated, interdisciplinary study of arguments over 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 dons, are often violent to the point of bloodshed, often hilarious, and always passionate. This is a cutting-edge cultural history that ranges from ancient Greece via the Renaissance to modern opera, and treats a central question of culture in a way which will excite both academics and a more general audience.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.List of illustrations; List of abbreviations; Introduction: shaking the foundations; 1. Learning Greek is heresy! Resisting Erasmus; 2. Becoming Greek, with Lucian; 3. Blood from the shadows: Strauss' disgusting degenerate Elektra; 4. Who lÓ-