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From Plato to Post-modernism: Understanding the Essence of Literature and the Role of the Author Audible Audiobook – Original recording

Louis Markos (Narrator, Author), The Great Courses (Author, Publisher)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 2 ratings
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Any lover of Shakespeare or the Romantic poets can concede that poetry is pleasurable. But is it good for you? Can it teach you anything? These are questions that have beguiled and engaged eminent critics for millennia, and now you can develop your own answers and options with these 24 lectures.

The source of poetry's wellspring; the relationship between poetry and human progress; the possible truths (and lies) involved in the literary arts; the role of the author; these lectures tap into an enormous range of material to explore these and other provocative issues. You'll follow the strands of this "conversation" between philosophy and the literary arts down the millennia, profiting from in-depth analyses of works by Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Sir Philip Sidney, Dryden, Pope, Wordsworth, Shelley, Coleridge, Matthew Arnold, T.S. Eliot, Northrop Frye, Foucault, Derrida, and more.

Throughout these lectures, you'll meet the poet in many guises. These include: the divine poet (a supernatural creator who transcends the laws of nature), the alchemical poet (the inspired individual who fuses humanity's divided nature into one), the common poet (the poet who roots himself or herself in the real world and speaks for the common individual), the playful poet (who champions sensitivity of feeling, contradictory truths, and uncertainties), and the prisoner poet (who's a product of, and a slave to, his or her own subconscious suppositions).

By concentrating on critical reflections about poetry - the oldest of the literary arts - you'll come away with lessons on how to understand literature, and all of the arts, more generally. More importantly, you'll be prepared to join in these critical conversations yourself.

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  1. Listening Length
    12 hours and 14 minutes
  2. Author
    Louis Markos, see all
  3. Narrator
    Louis Markos
  4. Audible release date
    July 8, 2013
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    The Great Courses
  7. ASIN
    B00DTO6LZ2
  8. Version
    Original recording
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 12 hours and 14 minutes
Author Louis Markos, The Great Courses
Narrator Louis Markos
Audible.com Release Date July 08, 2013
Publisher The Great Courses
Program Type Audiobook
Version Original recording
Language English
ASIN B00DTO6LZ2
Best Sellers Rank #144,794 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#100 in Ancient, Classical & Medieval Collections
#391 in Ancient & Classical Literature
#434 in Poetry (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
2 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jawam
4.0 out of 5 stars Student Beware...Personal Enrichment Assured, A Letter Grade Not Likely
Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2015
I am currently exploring Greek Mythology through one of the Great Courses and love the incredibly well-informed professor, the flow of the material and am nearly drunk on the rich imagery presented therein. If I have any constructive criticism it is: student beware! If you have already achieved your degree and this is simply for personal enrichment--enjoy. If you believe you can purchase these wonderful audiobooks and complete some core curriculum, have a library with supplemental texts handy. These audiobooks do not include the printed textbooks, the supplemental, printed textbooks or workbooks that are required when the professor teaches these courses. For all of us who have actually taken college classes, we know supplemental materials are critical for studying, review, and long-term retention of the material (not to mention valuable for visual learners).

Well, enough said. These are wonderful courses taught by some brilliant scholars and worth these few pennies. Indeed, they are below any tuition I have ever paid for a college course, I can tell you. I simply wanted to point out, it will benefit you to go to your local library to find the supporting documents for these courses. I wish only the documents or a list of suggested reading were offered for an additional fee for those interested.
3 people found this helpful
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Jeff's profile
4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, explicitly Christian overview of literary theory...
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2014
...but not offensively Christian, if I may put it that way. Think C.S. Lewis rather than fundamentalist (Markos is, in fact, a Lewis scholar, and describes himself in one lecture as evangelical, but not fundamentalist). Ethical monotheists and scientific materialists don't have much in common, but we do share the charmingly old-fashioned, unprovable belief that there is an external reality that can be known to some extent, so it was fun to listen to his carefully fair descriptions of modern near-sense and nonsense. The most radical modernists and postmodernists know that only one thing is really, truly True: that nothing is true in any privileged way. (The tap dancing done to dodge the obvious self-contradiction depends on the honesty and intellectual background of the proponent.)

Climbing partway down from my soapbox: I wish his several references to biological evolutionary theory, linguistics, and gender differences were better informed. I also would have enjoyed more detailed comments on actual literary works (excuse me, texts), especially from the (shudder) Western canon, but that probably would have made the course too long. It was still 12 hours (24 lectures) well spent.

I would also highly recommend Michael Drout's Modern Scholar lecture series, “Way with Words II: Approaches to Literature”, for a more secular overview (and recommend all of Drout's other series, for that matter).
4 people found this helpful
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