Generic enrichment in Vergil and Horace / S.J. Harrison.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harrison, S. J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Virgil--Criticism and interpretation.

Virgil.

Horace--Criticism and interpretation.

Horace.

Literary form.

Latin poetry--History and criticism.

Latin poetry.

Epic poetry, Latin--History and criticism.

Epic poetry, Latin.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

viii, 262 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007.

Summary:

Stephen Harrison sets out to sketch one answer to a key question in Latin literary history: why did the period c.39-19 BC in Rome produce such a rich range of complex poetical texts, above all in the work of Vergil and Horace? The political cycle of crisis and stability offered by the upheavals of the triumviral period and the following pax Augusta might provide some sociological and historical explanation: interesting literature is often the product of interesting times. But Harrison's concern here is with generic enrichment, the way in which the different poetic kinds of the Augustan period confront and react with one another (and with previously significant genres) with remarkably fruitful results. The intensity and detail of this interaction has much to contribute to the study of literary texture and literary history, and constitutes another type of explanation for the complexity and density of Augustan poetry. The book is firmly focused on interpreting particular stretches of text, often familiar ones, and presents a series of case studies rather than a vast inclusive account. It begins with an outline of generic theory ancient and modern as a basis for the argument, suggesting how different poetic genres and their partial presence in each other can be detected in the Latin poetry of the first century BC.

Contents:

Introduction : generic groundwork

Beyond pastoral? : generic pressures in Vergil's Eclogues

Ambition to rise : Horace, Satires I

On not being Archilochus : Horace's Epodes

Intra-epic debate : Vergil's Georgics

Lyric flexibility : literary form in Horace's Odes

Epic inclusivity : Vergil's Aeneid.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [241]-254) and indexes.

ISBN:

9780199203581

019920358X

OCLC:

85783262