Roman Epic: An Interpretative Introduction

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BRILL, 1999 - Literary Criticism - 371 pages
The author's approach to Roman epic is interpretative; the reader is invited to study a choice of typical texts, from the beginnings to the end of Antiquity. Famous poets are given the attention they deserve, but also some minor authors are discovered as precious 'missing links' between the ages. Special heed is paid to intertextual relationships between different epochs, cultures, literary genres, linguistic and literary patterns. The book is meant for students and teachers of classical and modern literatures, but also for all those interested in the history of literary genres and cultural ideas.

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Contents

and Their Readers
1
Inuentio The Rediscovery of the Odyssey and the Invention of a Poetic Language
33
Dispositio The Clash of Myth and History
45
Elocutio A Horse Simile or A Clash of Two Cultures A Hellenistic Poet in an Archaic Society
63
CONTENTS
64
Prooemium The Poet and His Reader The Iliad and the Odyssey as Subtexts to the Proem of the Aeneid
75
Narratio Aeneas Account of his Flight
90
Inuentio I Virgils View of History in the Catalogue of Heroes Aen 6 679899
99
of the Present Participle
251
The Futility of Rhetoric Achilles under the Spell
277
1
292
33
311
45
312
Poetic Rhetoric and Intertextuality Proserpinas
317
63
321
Transformation of Epic Imagery
329

Inuentio II Turnus a Tragic Hero? Virgil and Aristotle 7 Elocutio II On the Use of Tenses in the Aeneid
120
Dispositio Double Inversion and the Rhetoric of Silence
123
Elocutio I Virgils Similes and the Genesis of the Aeneid
129
Inuentio Ovid and His Readers
143
Prooemium Ovids Arachne and Human Creativity
153
Elocutio Similes in Ovids Metamorphoses and Their Functions
166
Clash of Genres Gods and Religion in Ovids Meta morphoses with Special Regard to Venus and Elegy
177
Clash of Systems of Values The Daughters of Anius
197
Elocutio and Defamiliarization The Thrill of a First Experience
209
Death and Poetic Survival of Oratory
217
The Revival of Epic through Science and Rhetoric
227
Bibliography
341
75
343
120
344
123
346
129
348
134
349
Periodicals and Standard Works
361
153
366
227
368
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About the author (1999)

Michael von Albrecht studied music, Latin, Greek and Sanskrit at Stuttgart, Tubingen, and Paris (Ph.D. 1959, venia legendi 1963). Full Professor of Classics at the University of Heidelberg 1964-98. Guest professorships in the Netherlands and in the United States. German-Russian Cultural Prize 1991 for the edition of his father's musical works. Member of several academies and professional associations. Honorary doctor's degree (University of Thessaloniki) 1998. Numerous works on comparative literature (e.g. "Rom: Spiegel Europas" 2nd ed. 1998). Music and classics (e.g. "Masters of Roman Prose," English ed. 1988). His "History of Latin Literature" (Brill, 1997) was published in five languages. He is editor of several series of scholarly publications and co-editor of the "International Journal of Musicology."