Strategies of ambiguity in ancient literature / edited by Martin Vohler, Therese Fuhrer and Stavros Frangoulidis.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Vohler, Martin, editor.

Fuhrer, Therese, editor.

Frangoulidis, Stavros A., editor.

Series:

Trends in classics. Supplementary volumes ; Volume 114.

Trends in classics. Supplementary volumes ; Volume 114

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature, Ancient--History and criticism.

Literature, Ancient.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 422 pages).

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, [2021]

Summary:

Ambiguity in the sense of two or more possible meanings is considered to be a distinctive feature of modern art and literature. It characterizes the "open artwork" (Eco) and is generated by "disruptive tactics" (Wellershoff) and strategies to engender uncertainty. While ambiguity is seen as a "paradigm of modernity" (Bode), there is skepticism regarding its use in the pre-modern era. Older studies were dominated by the conviction that there was a lack of ambiguity in pre-modernity because, according to the rules of the "old rhetoric", ambiguity was seen as an avoidable error (vitium) and a violation of the dictate of clarity (perspicuitas). The aim of the volume is to re-examine the putative "absence of ambiguity" in the pre-modern era. Is it not possible to find clear examples of deliberately employed (intended) ambiguity in antiquity? Are the oracles and riddles, the Palinode of Stesichoros and Socrates (Phaedrus), the dissoi logoi of rhetoric, the ambiguities of the tragedies all exceptions or do they not indicate a distinct interest in the artistic use of ambiguity? The presentations of the conference, which will include scholars from various philologies, will combine a recourse to theoretical concepts of intended ambiguity with exemplary analyses from the field of pre-modern art and literature.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Preface

Contents

List of Figures

Part I: Concepts and Aesthetics of Ambiguity

Modern and Ancient Concepts of Ambiguity

Aristotle on Ambiguity

Intended Ambiguity in Plato's Phaedo

The Ambiguity of the Unambiguous: Figures of Death in Late Medieval Literature

The Modern Perspective: Ambiguity, Artistic Self-Reference, and the Autonomy of Art

Part II: Playing with Linguistic Ambiguity

Traversing No-Man's Land

The Ambiguity of Wisdom: Mētis in the Odyssey

Borges in Alexandria? Modes of Ambiguity in Hellenistic Poetry

Sympotic Sexuality: The Ambiguity of Seafood in Middle Comedy (Nausicrates fr. 1 K.-A.)

Liber esto - Wordplay and Ambiguity in Petronius' Satyrica

Part III: Ambiguous Narratives

Half Heroes? Ambiguity in Ovid's Metamorphoses

Underneath the Arachnean and Minervan Veil of Ambiguity: Cultural and Political Simulatio in Ovidian Ecphrasis

Ambigua Verba, Hidden Desire and Auctorial Intentionality in Some Ovidian Speeches (Met. 3.279−92; 7.810−23; 10.364−6, 440−1)

The Pleasures of Ambiguity: Aristomenes' Tale of Socrates in Apuleius' Metamorphoses

Legens. Ambiguity, Syllepsis and Allegory in Claudian's De Raptu Proserpinae

Part IV: Ambiguity as Argument

Between Conversion and Madness: Sophisticated Ambiguity in Lucian's Nigrinus

Catullan Ambiguity

Prophetic, Poetic and Political Ambiguity in Vergil Eclogue 4

Vitae aut vocis ambigua: Seneca the Younger and Ambiguity

Who speaks? - Ambiguity and Vagueness in the Design of Cicero's Dialogue Speakers

Unsettling Effects and Disconcertment - Strategies of Enacting Interpretations in Tacitusʼ Annals

The Latin Commentary Tradition on 'Inclusive' Intended Ambiguity

Part V: Ambiguous Receptions

Ambivalent Allegories: Giovan Battista Marino's Adone (1623) between Censorship and Hermeneutic Freedom

Multipliers of Ambiguity: The Use of Quotations in Cavafy's Poems Concerning the Emperor Julian

Seven Perspectives of Ambiguity and the Problem of Intentionality

List of Contributors

General Index

Index of Passages

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes index.

ISBN:

3-11-071581-3