Winged words : flight in poetry and history
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Winged words : flight in poetry and history
University of Chicago Press, 2007
[English language ed.]
- : cloth
- Other Title
-
Parole alate : voli nella poesia e nella storia da Omero all'11 settembre
Available at 4 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Originally published: Milano : Mondadori, 2004
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Flight has always fascinated human minds, but until a century ago it remained a dream - the exclusive domain of birds, gods, and mythological heroes. From the myths of the ancients to the poetry of Pindar and Yeats, "Winged Words" traces the imprint of the human impulse to fly from premodern times up to the age of terrorism in both literature and history. Piero Boitani begins his analysis with an account of how the myths of Pegasus and Icarus have persisted from classical to twentieth-century politics and literature. He then takes up the figure of Hermes; the roles of halcyons and eagles in classical, biblical, and later literatures; and literary responses to Pieter Brueghel's "The Fall of Icarus". Homing in on modern figures and concerns, Boitani also offers a fascinating discussion of author - pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery and concludes with a meditation on the flight of the hijacked airliners on 9/11. Throughout, "Winged Words" brings a remarkable range of men of action, politicians, theologians, writers, and artists into dialogue with each other: Shakespeare with T. S.
Eliot, Horace with Ovid, Leonardo with Milton, Leopardi with Mallarme, Saint-Exupery with Faulkner and Rilke, and the Ulysses of Homer with the Ulysses of Dante. Ultimately, by showing how writers and fliers have looked to the ancients for inspiration, Boitani testifies to the modern relevance of poetry and the classics.
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