Eva Brann (1929–2024)
Author of Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in Reading the Odyssey and the Iliad
About the Author
Eva Brann is a member of the senior faculty at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, where she has taught for more than sixty years. She holds degrees from Brooklyn College and Yale University and is a recipient of the National Humanities Medal. Feigning is her thirteenth book from Paul Dry show more Books. Her other books include Pursuits of Happiness, Iron Filings or Scribblings, How to Constitute a World, Doublethink / Doubletalk, Then Now, Un-Willing, The Logos of Heraclitus, Feeling Our Feelings, Homage to Americans, Open Secrets / Inward Prospects, The Music of the Republic, and Homeric Moments. show less
Works by Eva Brann
The Music of the Republic: Essays on Socrates' Conversations and Plato's Writings (2004) 75 copies, 1 review
Homage to Americans: Mile-High Meditations, Close Readings, and Time-Spanning Speculations (2010) 11 copies
A College Unique and Universal 2 copies
Liberated Characters 1 copy
Associated Works
A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen (2009) — Contributor — 411 copies, 18 reviews
Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra (1976) — Translator, some editions — 174 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Brann, Eva
- Legal name
- Brann, Eva T. H.
- Birthdate
- 1929
- Date of death
- 2024-10-28
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Yale University (PhD | MA)
Brooklyn College (BA) - Occupations
- tutor
professor
intellectual historian
philosopher - Organizations
- St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland
- Awards and honors
- National Humanities Medal (2005)
Russell Kirk Paideia Prize (2014) - Relationships
- Heidegger, Martin (teacher)
Klein, Jacob (colleague) - Short biography
- Eva Brann was born to a German-Jewish family in Berlin. She emigrated in 1941 to the USA and received her B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1950, her M.A. in classics from Yale University in 1951, and her Ph.D. in archaeology from Yale in 1956. She also held an Honorary Doctorate from Middlebury College. Vermont.
She obtained a faculty position at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1957, and in her early years there was very close to her colleague, the philosopher Jacob Klein. After Prof. Klein's death, Prof. Brann increasingly assumed his role as the defining figure of St. John's College and the Great Books program.
She was the longest-serving member of the faculty and previously served as dean of the college. - Nationality
- Germany (birth)
USA (naturalized) - Birthplace
- Berlin, Germany
- Places of residence
- Annapolis, Maryland, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Annapolis, Maryland, USA
Members
Reviews
There is much to be commended in this short book--Brann offers helpful interpretations and reinterpretations of Heraclitean fragments, as well as correctly identifies Heraclitus' Logos as a fundamentally agonistic relation (hence "War is the Father of all things"), that both creates, maintains, and requires tension & strife. She correctly attributes features of Socrates' dialectic to core Heraclitean insights, and acknowledges that Hegel must have recognized (and utilized) the power of his show more ontological paradoxes.
She goes wrong when she counter-intuitively argues that Heraclitus is incorrectly read as a "flux" philosopher, and would be better paired with his contemporary Parmenides, who famously claimed that "All is one." While I wouldn't disagree that Heraclitus stands in relation (per the Logos) to Parmenides' declaration, I do not think the One of Parmenides is the same One that Heraclitus speaks of. Instead of denying the flux (change, agonism, strife) that is at the core of Heraclitus' fragments, she could have pushed Hegel's conclusions further, and found Heraclitus' true descendant in Adorno and his Negative Dialectics, which does not seek to reconcile opposites into an untrue unity. show less
She goes wrong when she counter-intuitively argues that Heraclitus is incorrectly read as a "flux" philosopher, and would be better paired with his contemporary Parmenides, who famously claimed that "All is one." While I wouldn't disagree that Heraclitus stands in relation (per the Logos) to Parmenides' declaration, I do not think the One of Parmenides is the same One that Heraclitus speaks of. Instead of denying the flux (change, agonism, strife) that is at the core of Heraclitus' fragments, she could have pushed Hegel's conclusions further, and found Heraclitus' true descendant in Adorno and his Negative Dialectics, which does not seek to reconcile opposites into an untrue unity. show less
I’ve read The Odyssey in various translations, although I’m not nearly so familiar with The Iliad. This book looked like an interesting way to explore new-to-me aspects of both poems. It lived up to its promise.
There are just under 50 chapters, each examining some theme such as the roles of certain characters, or use of epithets. The chapters are short and I found them easy to read, with an enthusiastic but not over-simplified style. During discussion of poetic form, there are occasional show more quotations from the “original” Greek text. These were presented as transliterated text, which took a while to get used to.
I initially dipped into a few topics that caught my eye, then settled down to read from the start. The early chapters refer to both poems while the later ones concentrate on The Odyssey. At times I found myself thinking, “Ah, she makes a good point,” or “I must keep an eye out for more examples.” And that is surely a good thing :) show less
There are just under 50 chapters, each examining some theme such as the roles of certain characters, or use of epithets. The chapters are short and I found them easy to read, with an enthusiastic but not over-simplified style. During discussion of poetic form, there are occasional show more quotations from the “original” Greek text. These were presented as transliterated text, which took a while to get used to.
I initially dipped into a few topics that caught my eye, then settled down to read from the start. The early chapters refer to both poems while the later ones concentrate on The Odyssey. At times I found myself thinking, “Ah, she makes a good point,” or “I must keep an eye out for more examples.” And that is surely a good thing :) show less
Brann illuminates and injects with many meanings the surviving fragments of Heraclitus. It took awhile to get into the linguistic circumscription philosophical technique being used, but in the end it does seem warranted. Whether Heraclitus actually meant for Logos to play the role of stable opposition and unifier of ratios or it is just Brann telling that story through his fragments is secondary to the fact that this is a deep meditative reading.
On the shelf next to The Republic and The Trial and Execution of Socrates. Looking inside, have clipped a review from... 20 years ago. Oof.
Not sure I have it in me to revisit The Republic, but I did sample the three chapters covering The Apology and Phaedo.
Brann is a good guide, pulling apart the arguments at interesting seams.
Not sure I have it in me to revisit The Republic, but I did sample the three chapters covering The Apology and Phaedo.
Brann is a good guide, pulling apart the arguments at interesting seams.
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 28
- Also by
- 7
- Members
- 646
- Popularity
- #39,072
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 5
- ISBNs
- 34
- Languages
- 1
- Favorited
- 1
