Pastoral inscriptions : reading and writing Virgil's Eclogues / Brian W. Breed.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Breed, Brian W.

Series:

Classical literature and society

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Virgil. Bucolica.

Virgil.

Physical Description:

vii, 199 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London : Duckworth, 2006.

Summary:

Virgil's Eclogues represent the introduction of a new genre, pastoral, to Latin literature. Generic markers of pastoral in the Eclogues include not only the representation of the singing and speaking of shepherd characters, but also the learned density of the text itself. Pastoral Inscriptions examines the tension between representations of orality in Virgil's pastoral world and the intense textuality of his pastoral poetry. The book argues that separation between speakers and their language in the Eclogues is not merely pastoral preciosity. Rather, it shows how Virgil uses representations of orality as the point of comparison for measuring both the capacity and the limitations of the Eclogues as a written text that will be encountered by reading audiences. The importance of genre is considered both in terms of how pastoral might be defined for the particular literary-historical moment in which Virgil was writing and in light of the subsequent European pastoral tradition.

Contents:

1 Introduction: Orality and Textuality in the Eclogues 1

2 Other People's Voices 28

3 Dialogue and Textuality in the Amoebean Eclogues 52

4 Imago Vocis: Echoes, Ecphrasis and the Voice as Source 74

5 Pastoral Origins in Eclogue 1 95

6 Site Translation 117

7 Eclogue 4: The Voice of the Author 136

8 Reading the Eclogues 149.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-192) and index.

ISBN:

0715634496

9780715634493

OCLC:

71165569