| Inconsistency in Roman Epic: Studies in Catullus, Lucretius, Vergil, Ovid and Lucan Contributor(s): O'Hara, James J. (Author) |
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ISBN: 052164139X ISBN-13: 9780521641395 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $90.25 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: May 2007 Annotation: How should we react as readers and as critics when two passages in a literary work contradict one another? Classicists once assumed that all inconsistencies in ancient texts needed to be amended, explained away, or lamented. Building on recent work on both Greek and Roman authors, this book explores the possibility of interpreting inconsistencies in Roman epic. After a chapter surveying Greek background material including Homer, tragedy, Plato and the Alexandrians, five chapters argue that comparative study of the literary use of inconsistencies can shed light on major problems in Catullus??? Peleus and Thetis, Lucretius??? De Rerum Natura, Vergil??'s Aeneid, Ovid??'s Metamorphoses, and Lucan??'s Bellum Civile. Not all inconsistencies can or should be interpreted thematically, but numerous details in these poems, and some ancient and modern theorists, suggest that we can be better readers if we consider how inconsistencies may be functioning in Greek and Roman texts. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Language Arts & Disciplines - History - Literary Criticism |
| Dewey: 873 |
| LCCN: 2007297231 |
| Series: Roman Literature and Its Contexts |
| Physical Information: 0.6" H x 5.2" W x 7.9" (0.65 lbs) 178 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: How should we react as readers and as critics when two passages in a literary work contradict one another? Classicists once assumed that all inconsistencies in ancient texts needed to be amended, explained away, or lamented. Building on recent work on both Greek and Roman authors, this book explores the possibility of interpreting inconsistencies in Roman epic. After a chapter surveying Greek background material including Homer, tragedy, Plato and the Alexandrians, five chapters argue that comparative study of the literary use of inconsistencies can shed light on major problems in Catullus' Peleus and Thetis, Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, Vergil's Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and Lucan's Bellum Civile. Not all inconsistencies can or should be interpreted thematically, but numerous details in these poems, and some ancient and modern theorists, suggest that we can be better readers if we consider how inconsistencies may be functioning in Greek and Roman texts. |
Contributor Bio(s): O'Hara, James J.: - James J. O'Hara is George L. Paddison Professor of Latin at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of Death and the Optimistic Prophecy in Vergil's Aeneid (1990) and True Names: Vergil and the Alexandrian Tradition of Etymological Wordplay (1996), as well as numerous articles and reviews on Latin literature. |