Anthropologist Mary Douglas’ controversial study of patterns in ancient world literature, Thinking in Circles: An Essay on Ring Composition was featured in an article in yesterday’s New York Times. Douglas explains that many famous ancient texts are misunderstood and many others have been completely neglected due to the literary style in which they were written.

Epic works of non-Western cultures such as Homer’s Iliad, the Bible’s book of Numbers, and Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandu, are often constructed in the shape of rings, a technique which places the meaning of the text in the middle, framed by a beginning and an ending in parallel. “Writings that used to baffle and dismay unprepared readers, when read correctly, turn out to be marvelously controlled and complex compositions,” she writes, and consequently, modern scholars must reevaluate their tendency to read a ring composition in today’s linear fashion.

To read the full article, click here.