Virgil and the moderns / Theodore Ziolkowski.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ziolkowski, Theodore.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Virgil--Criticism and interpretation--History.

Virgil.

Latin poetry--History and criticism--Theory, etc.

Latin poetry.

Literature, Modern--Roman influences.

Literature, Modern.

Modernism (Literature).

Criticism and interpretation.

History.

Rome--In literature.

Rome.

Rome (Empire).

Physical Description:

xv, 274 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1993.

Summary:

Virgil has permeated modern culture like no other icon of Western civilization. In the United States, for example, three of his phrases appear on the dollar bill, and his Aeneid was often cited as a model for the nation's westward expansion. Theodore Ziolkowski traces the impact of the Roman poet into the twentieth century, showing how the Aeneid, the Eclogues, and the Georgics supplied the patterns, images, values, and often the very words used in key works of modern literature. Focusing on American and European writing produced between 1914 and 1945 -- when Virgil figured prominently in works by Auden, Broch, Eliot, Frost, and Gide, and by Tate, Ungaretti, Valery, and Wilder -- this comparative analysis reveals a major cultural period in a fascinating new light.

Ziolkowski argues that after World War I people came to understand Virgil in a new way: exposed to the rhetoric of totalitarian dictators, and having experienced social upheaval and economic disaster, they recognized in his poetry similar stresses and noted in it a dark aspect not received by earlier generations. Exploring a wide range of modern works, the author demonstrates how preferences for Virgil's poems varied significantly among countries and individuals and how these texts provided a mirror in which readers found what they wished: populism or elitism, fascism or democracy, commitment or escapism. In his closing thoughts, Ziolkowski addresses the current decline of classical learning in the United States and encourages us to reclaim Virgil as an invaluable cultural possession.

Contents:

The Crisis of History 6

The Roman Analogy in Modern Thought 12

The Bimillennial Celebrations 17

Ch. 2 The Ideological Lives 27

The Ancient Vitae 27

The Popularized Virgil 30

The Protofascist Virgil 38

The Proto-Christian Virgil 48

Ch. 3 Virgil on the Continent 57

The French Bucoliasts 57

The German Millennialists 76

The Italian Hermeticists 90

Ch. 4 Virgil in Britain 99

The Eclogues Parodied 101

The Modern Georgicists 104

The Case of T.S. Eliot 119

Annus Mirabilis Virgilianus 129

The Aeneid Ironized 134

Ch. 5 Virgil in the New World 146

The Political Eclogue 155

Virgil with a Southern Accent 163

Aeneas Americanus 181

The Detractors 191

Ch. 6 Virgil Redivivus 194

Virgilius Redux 195

The Case of Hermann Broch 203

Other "Deaths of Virgil" 222

Virgil in a Post-Virgilian Age 229

The Meaning of Virgil's Survival 235.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0691032483 :

OCLC:

27109426