Radical Formalisms - by Sarah Nooter & Mario Telò

About the Book

"This edited volume seeks to draw the reader toward unconventional networks and the connections found in ancient Greek and Roman literature, as well as the poetic traditions developed in the Black Americas. Subdivided into three parts, the chapters combine studies of poetics in ancient and modern contexts, exploring subversions of the canonical and formal resistances to the hegemony of textual order. 'Radical formalism' is the term given to strategies for defamiliarising - revitalizing while disrupting and unsettling - modes of formalistic reading practiced deconstructionism, microformalism and psychoanalysis"--

Book Synopsis

The term "radical formalism" refers to strategies aimed at defamiliarising and revitalising conventional modes of formalistic reading and theorising form. These strategies disrupt and unsettle established norms while incorporating a metadiscursive awareness of their broader political implications. This volume presents a radical reconceptualisation of literary works from Greek and Roman antiquity. Engaging in an ongoing dialogue with critical theory and postcritique, as well as drawing inspiration from traditions rooted in Black art, poetry and philosophy-both directly and indirectly connected to the classical tradition-the essays in this collection explore subversions of canonical norms and resistances to the hegemony of textual order.

This collection not only provides new, provocative insights into a corpus of texts that has exerted a lasting impact on modern literature and philosophy, but also challenges current interpretive methods, recasting the very practice of reading in relation to form, poetics, language, sound, temporalities and textuality.

Review Quotes

"This volume provocatively explores the aesthetic and political possibilities of deconstructionist and postcritical approaches to form in ancient texts. While readers may variously be stimulated, challenged, or infuriated by its close and transparently subjective engagement with phenomenological aspects of reading, Radical Formalisms offers classical studies a fresh critical path forward." --David Christenson, Professor of Classics, University of Arizona, USA

"A joyous collection by a constellation of star scholars. Mind-expanding, political and systematically committed to the affordances of literary form from the roots: a veritable wake-up call to classical philology." --David Fearn, Professor of Greek, University of Warwick, UK

About the Author

Sarah Nooter is Professor of Classics, Theatre, and Performance Studies at the University of Chicago, USA.

Mario Telò is Professor of Rhetoric, Comparative Literature, and Ancient Greek and Roman Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, USA.