The Primacy of Vision in Virgil's AeneidOne of the masterpieces of Latin and, indeed, world literature, Virgil's Aeneid was written during the Augustan "renaissance" of architecture, art, and literature that redefined the Roman world in the early years of the empire. This period was marked by a transition from the use of rhetoric as a means of public persuasion to the use of images to display imperial power. Taking a fresh approach to Virgil's epic poem, Riggs Alden Smith argues that the Aeneid fundamentally participates in the Augustan shift from rhetoric to imagery because it gives primacy to vision over speech as the principal means of gathering and conveying information as it recounts the heroic adventures of Aeneas, the legendary founder of Rome. Working from the theories of French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Smith characterizes Aeneas as a voyant-visible, a person who both sees and is seen and who approaches the world through the faculty of vision. Engaging in close readings of key episodes throughout the poem, Smith shows how Aeneas repeatedly acts on what he sees rather than what he hears. Smith views Aeneas' final act of slaying Turnus, a character associated with the power of oratory, as the victory of vision over rhetoric, a triumph that reflects the ascendancy of visual symbols within Augustan society. Smith's new interpretation of the predominance of vision in the Aeneid makes it plain that Virgil's epic contributes to a new visual culture and a new mythology of Imperial Rome. |
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... describe Bacchus strictly in terms of his intoxicating qualities or even in terms of the pervasiveness of viticulture ... describes a " happy farmer , " weary from the day and , in the company of his friends , crowning a wine bowl and ...
... Describing his arrival in Buthrotum , Aeneas explains how he met Andro- mache while she was making offerings at the ... describes the sacrifice on the twin altars as cause for tears . Aeneas ' entrance into this world was , he explains ...
... describes Dido's response to Aeneas , he carefully calls par- ticular attention to her eyes : Talia dicentem ... describe Dido's gaze is an interesting choice and would seem to suggest that her eyes restrain her pain and anger , if only ...
Contents
CHAPTER 2 | 22 |
Vision Past and Future | 60 |
Love Vision and Destiny | 97 |
Copyright | |
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