The full-knowing reader : allusion and the power of the reader in the western literary tradition / Joseph Pucci.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Pt. 1. The Modern Context. 1. Contemporary Versions of Allusion. 2. The Full-Knowing Reader: A New Version of Allusion -- Pt. 2. The Ancient and Medieval Context. 3. Versions of Reading. 4. Versions of Allusion -- Pt. 3. Reading Allusion: Catullus to Pound. 5. Swinburne's Battle: Catullus, Callimachus, Anacreon, Sappho. 6. The Wounded Body: Augustine and Horace. 7. The Unhealable Wound: Abelard, Ovid, and Lucan. 8. Scala a Dio: Dante and Ovid. 9. The Green World: Pound and Contemporary Allusion.

Literary allusions abound in Western literature, and those who study them tend to focus on the author's intentions to demonstrate erudition, embellish meaning, or exert control over tradition. Joseph Pucci contends that the key to grasping the meaning of an allusive text is in the hands of the "full-knowing" reader. Pucci shows how allusion authorizes the desires of such a reader - one who is active, engaged, and historically sensitive - at the expense of the author.