Cavafy's Alexandria: Study Of A Myth In Progress
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good. Jacket: Worn/faded - small tears around edges of jacket. Page Condition: Good. Markings: No markings. Binding condition: Good.
At the crossroads of myth, memory, and modernity stands Alexandria — the legendary city that defined the poetic imagination of C.P. Cavafy, one of the twentieth century's most distinctive voices. Edmund Keeley's Cavafy's Alexandria: Study of a Myth in Progress presents a rigorous and luminous examination of how the ancient Egyptian port city became not merely a backdrop but the very spiritual and intellectual architecture of Cavafy's verse, tracing the evolution of the poet's mythologised vision across his body of work. Keeley, a preeminent scholar of modern Greek literature, argues with precision and eloquence that Cavafy's Alexandria is less a historical place than a living construct — a city of the mind perpetually reinvented through irony, sensuality, and existential longing. Drawing on deep familiarity with both the Greek literary tradition and the cultural complexities of Hellenistic Alexandria, this study illuminates how Cavafy transforms historical figures and erotic memory into timeless symbols of human frailty and desire. For anyone seeking to understand why Cavafy's poetry continues to resonate across cultures and generations, this is an indispensable key.
Author: Edmund Keeley
Format: Hardback
Published: 1977, Harvard University Press
Genre: Literary theory
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good. Jacket: Worn/faded - small tears around edges of jacket. Page Condition: Good. Markings: No markings. Binding condition: Good.
At the crossroads of myth, memory, and modernity stands Alexandria — the legendary city that defined the poetic imagination of C.P. Cavafy, one of the twentieth century's most distinctive voices. Edmund Keeley's Cavafy's Alexandria: Study of a Myth in Progress presents a rigorous and luminous examination of how the ancient Egyptian port city became not merely a backdrop but the very spiritual and intellectual architecture of Cavafy's verse, tracing the evolution of the poet's mythologised vision across his body of work. Keeley, a preeminent scholar of modern Greek literature, argues with precision and eloquence that Cavafy's Alexandria is less a historical place than a living construct — a city of the mind perpetually reinvented through irony, sensuality, and existential longing. Drawing on deep familiarity with both the Greek literary tradition and the cultural complexities of Hellenistic Alexandria, this study illuminates how Cavafy transforms historical figures and erotic memory into timeless symbols of human frailty and desire. For anyone seeking to understand why Cavafy's poetry continues to resonate across cultures and generations, this is an indispensable key.