Statius Silvae And The Poetics Of Empire

Download or read book Statius' Silvae and the Poetics of Empire written by Carole E. Newlands and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-03-14 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Statius' Silvae, written late in the reign of Domitian (AD 81–96), are a new kind of poetry that confronts the challenge of imperial majesty or private wealth by new poetic strategies and forms. As poems of praise, they delight in poetic excess whether they honour the emperor or the poet's friends. Yet extravagant speech is also capacious speech. It functions as a strategy for conveying the wealth and grandeur of villas, statues and precious works of art as well as the complex emotions aroused by the material and political culture of empire. The Silvae are the product of a divided, self-fashioning voice. Statius was born in Naples of non-aristocratic parents. His position as outsider to the culture he celebrates gives him a unique perspective on it. The Silvae are poems of anxiety as well as praise, expressive of the tensions within the later period of Domitian's reign.

Download or read book The Poetry of Statius written by Johannes Jacobus Louis Smolenaars and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Nothing Ordinary Here written by Noelle K. Zeiner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-25 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a combined methodology of philology, social theory and archaeology this book offers a reinterpretation of Statius's Silvae.

Download or read book Fides in Flavian Literature written by Antony Augoustakis and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2019-08-22 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fides in Flavian Literature explores the ideology of "good faith" (fides) during the time of the emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian (69–96 CE), the new imperial dynasty that gained power in the wake of the civil wars of the period. The contributors to this volume consider the significance and semantic range of this Roman value in works that deal in myth, contemporary poetry, and history in both prose and verse. Though it does not claim to offer the comprehensive "last word" on fides in Flavian Rome, the book aims to show that fides in this period was subjected to a particularly striking and special brand of contestation and reconceptualization, used to interrogate the broad cultural changes and anxieties of the Flavian period as well as connect to a republican and imperial past. The editors argue that fides was both a vehicle for reconciliation and a means to test the nature of "good faith" in the wake of a devastating and divisive period in Roman history.

Download or read book A Handbook to the Reception of Ovid written by John F. Miller and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-10-31 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Handbook to the Reception of Ovid presents more than 30 original essays written by leading scholars revealing the rich diversity of critical engagement with Ovid’s poetry that spans the Western tradition from antiquity to the present day. Offers innovative perspectives on Ovid’s poetry and its reception from antiquity to the present day Features contributions from more than 30 leading scholars in the Humanities. Introduces familiar and unfamiliar figures in the history of Ovidian reception. Demonstrates the enduring and transformative power of Ovid’s poetry into modern times.

Download or read book Variety written by William Fitzgerald and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-03-08 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea of variety may seem too diffuse, obvious, or nebulous to be worth scrutinizing, but modern usage masks the rich history of the term. This book examines the meaning, value, and practice of variety from the vantage point of Latin literature and its reception and reveals the enduring importance of the concept up to the present day. William Fitzgerald looks at the definition and use of the Latin term varietas and how it has played out in different works and with different authors. He shows that, starting with the Romans, variety has played a key role in our thinking about nature, rhetoric, creativity, pleasure, aesthetics, and empire. From the lyric to elegy and satire, the concept of variety has helped to characterize and distinguish different genres. Arguing that the ancient Roman ideas and controversies about the value of variety have had a significant afterlife up to our own time, Fitzgerald reveals how modern understandings of diversity and choice derive from what is ultimately an ancient concept.

Download or read book Building in Words written by Bettina Reitz-Joosse and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Building in Words explores the relation between text and architecture in the Roman world from a new angle. Ancient Roman viewers were not only confronted with finished monuments, but also frequently with buildings under construction. They experienced noisy building work, disruptive transportation of materials, and sometimes spectacular engineering feats. This book analyses how Roman writers responded to the process of building and construction in their works. For Roman authors, telling stories of architectural creation served to give meaning to finished monuments. Representing a building's construction might encourage admiration of its artistry, cost, or labour. On the other hand, it could also highlight morally problematic aspects of construction, especially in connection with large-scale engineering projects. In offering descriptions of the process of creating architecture, writers also reflect on the creation of their own works. The metaphor of construction for literary composition is polyvalent: writers use it to comment on the aesthetics or ambition of their literary work, to articulate the power and durability, but also the fragility of literature. This monograph places literary texts of the early Roman empire in dialogue with epigraphic and archaeological material. Through its focus on the process of building, it furthers our understanding of the aesthetics of both architecture and literature in ancient Rome"--