Poetic justice : rereading Plato's Republic /

Frank (Cornell) has written a book that makes explicit what Plato's Republic has taught her. She has learned that for Plato "authority lies not with authors but with their interpreters." She substitutes for the authority of the philosopher-king or for the authority of Plato himself (which her Plato eschews) the "circulating authority" of the multiplicity of readers and readings. Her attempt to make authority fluid gives her Plato a certain democratic bent. Whether that is Plato's intent, or whether Plato's intent is authoritative, the reader must judge. Frank has a deep understanding of why the justice of the city founded by Socrates and Glaucon forecloses the possibility of mapping that same justice and self-rule onto the individual soul, but she does not see this limitation as an intrinsic limitation of politics. Frank's justification of poetry is based on the distinction between the "true lie," which intends to deceive us, and the poetic fiction that points to the untruth of its own representation. In this way, poetry necessarily helps us see the truth. This seems to be Franks's understanding of the poetry of the Republic itself, one well worth pondering in detail. This scholarly orientation would probably be an obstacle for most undergraduates, but it is highly recommended for more advanced students. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Christopher A. Colmo, Dominican University