Author: Randall T. Ganiban Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1139461796 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 233
Book Description
At the end of the Thebaid, Statius enjoins his epic 'not to compete with the divine Aeneid but rather to follow at a distance and always revere its footprints'. The nature of the Thebaid's interaction with the Aeneid is, however, a matter of debate. This 2007 book argues that the Thebaid reworks themes, scenes, and ideas from Virgil in order to show that the Aeneid's representation of monarchy is inadequate. It also demonstrates how the Thebaid's fascination with horror, spectacle, and unspeakable violence is tied to Statius' critique of the moral and political virtues at the heart of the Aeneid. Professor Ganiban offers both a way to interpret the Thebaid and a largely sequential reading of the poem.
Author: Mairéad McAuley Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199659362 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 462
Book Description
Reproducing Rome is a study of the representation of maternity in the Roman literature of the first century CE-particularly Virgil, Ovid, Seneca, and Statius-considering to what degree it reflects, constructs, or subverts Roman ideals of, and anxieties about, family and motherhood.
Author: Charles McNelis Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1139462911 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 214
Book Description
This study focuses on ways in which Statius' epic Thebaid, a poem about the civil war between Oedipus' sons Eteocles and Polynices, reflects the theme of internal discord in its narrative strategies. At the same time that Statius reworks the Homeric and Virgilian epic traditions, he engages with Hellenistic poetic ideals as exemplified by Callimachus and the Roman Callimachean poets, especially Ovid. The result is a tension between the impulse towards the generic expectations of warfare and the desire for delay and postponement of such conflict. Ultimately, Statius adheres to the mythic paradigm of the mutual fratricide, but he continues to employ competing strategies that call attention to the fictive nature of any project of closure and conciliation. In the process, the poem offers a new mode of epic closure that emphasises individual means of resolution.
Author: Lloyd H. Howard Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP ISBN: 0773582568 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 262
Book Description
Virgil the Blind Guide examines the repetition of certain linguistic configurations that have remained hidden because the meanings of the words involved do not relate to Virgil's competence as guide. Uncovering tropes that have yet to be studied, Howard allows us to see new junctures in the poet's travels, while highlighting Virgil's impotence and diminishing his authority as regards other poets, guides, and the demons of Hell's lower gate. The concealed route revealed by Dante's figurative signposts establishes Virgil's traits as foundational to the poem and allows for new perspectives and understandings of this critical character. Using this distinctive strategy, Virgil the Blind Guide helps us to piece together the complex puzzle that is Dante's pagan guide and suggests new ways of understanding important characters that are applicable to a broad range of poetry and prose.
Author: Jean-Michel Hulls Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG ISBN: 3110717999 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 320
Book Description
The aim of this project is to provide a sustained analysis of the concept of ‘self’ in Statius’ Thebaid. It is this project’s contention that the poem is profoundly interested in ideas of identity and selfhood. The poem stages itself as a metapoetic exploration of the difficulties for a belated epicist in finding a place in the literary canon; it shows the impossibility of squaring large-scale epic poetics with small-scale, finely-wrought Callimacheanism; it reflects the violent disjunction between Statius’ authorial pose as a poet without power and the extreme violence of his poetics; it opens up the intricacies of constructing original, coherent characters out of intertextual, exemplary models. The central tenet of the project is that Statius in the Thebaid stages his own 'death', but does so that his poem may live. This book is intended for an academic audience including undergraduate and graduate students as well as specialists in the field. Although the project will be of primary importance to readers of Flavian literature, it will also be of interest to those who study intertextuality and characterisation in Roman literature more generally, selfhood and identity in Roman literature and culture and the reception of Roman literature.
Author: Mark Vernon Publisher: Angelico Press ISBN: 1621387488 Category : Poetry Languages : en Pages : 515
Book Description
Dante Alighieri was early in recognizing that our age has a problem. His hometown, Florence, was at the epicenter of the move from the medieval world to the modern. He realized that awareness of divine reality was shifting, and that if it were lost, dire consequences would follow. The Divine Comedy was born in a time of troubling transition, which is why it still speaks today. Dante's masterpiece presents a cosmic vision of reality, which he invites his readers to traverse with him. In this narrative retelling and guide, from the gates of hell, up the mountain of purgatory, to the empyrean of paradise, Mark Vernon offers a vivid introduction and interpretation of a book that, 700 years on, continues to open minds and change lives.
Author: Johannes Jacobus Louis Smolenaars Publisher: BRILL ISBN: 9004171347 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 289
Book Description
The Roman poet P. Papinius Statius (ca. 45-96) is the author of two epics (the "Thebaid" and the unfinished "Achilleid") and a large corpus of occasional verse ("Silvae"). This poetry, long seen as derivative or decadent, is increasingly appreciated for the daring and originality of its responses both to the Greek and Latin literary tradition and to the contemporary Roman world. This volume offers the papers delivered at a symposium on Statius (Amsterdam 2005) by leading scholars in the field from Europe and North America. These papers demonstrate the fascination of Statius' poetry on account of the poet's vast knowledge of Greek and Latin tragedy, his rapid narrative, psychological acumen, brilliant eulogies, and pessimistic views on gods and men. The focus of the collection is on literary technique in the "Thebaid," on socio-historical aspects of the "Silvae," and on the reception of Statius in European literature and scholarship.
Author: Charles Martindale Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521498852 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 408
Book Description
Virgil became a school author in his own lifetime and the centre of the Western canon for the next 1800 years, exerting a major influence on European literature, art, and politics. This Companion is designed as an indispensable guide for anyone seeking a fuller understanding of an author critical to so many disciplines. It consists of essays by seventeen scholars from Britain, the USA, Ireland and Italy which offer a range of different perspectives both traditional and innovative on Virgil's works, and a renewed sense of why Virgil matters today. The Companion is divided into four main sections, focussing on reception, genre, context, and form. This ground-breaking book not only provides a wealth of material for an informed reading but also offers sophisticated insights which point to the shape of Virgilian scholarship and criticism to come.
Author: Randall T. Ganiban
Author: Mairéad McAuley
Author: Charles McNelis
Author: Lloyd H. Howard
Author: Philip R. Hardie
Author: Jean-Michel Hulls
Author: Mark Vernon
Author: Johannes Jacobus Louis Smolenaars
Author: Rachel Jacoff
Author: Charles Martindale