Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 234 pages; 24 cm

Summary

1. This is the first book to describe the intimate relationship between Latin literature and the politics of ancient Rome. Until now, most scholars have viewed classical Latin literature as a product of aesthetic concerns. Thomas Habinek shows, however, that literature was also a cultural practice that emerged from and intervened in the political and social struggles at the heart of the Roman world. Habinek considers major works by such authors as Cato, Cicero, Horace, Ovid, and Seneca. He shows that, from its beginnings in the late third century B.C.E. to its eclipse by Christian literature six hundred years later, classical literature six hundred years later, classical literature served the evolving interests of Roman and, more particularly, aristocratic power. It fostered a prestige dialect, for example; it appropriated the cultural resources of dominated and colonized communities; and it helped to defuse potentially explosive challenges to prevailing values and authority.

Subject

1. Latin literature > History and criticism
2. Authorship > Political aspects > Rome
3. Politics and literature > Rome
4. Group identity in literature
5. Imperialism in literature
6. Authorship > Political aspects
7. Latin literature
8. Politics and literature
9. Letterkunde
10. Latijn
11. Romeinse oudheid
12. Elites
13. Imperialisme
14. Latin literature > History and criticism > Political aspects
15. Impérialisme > Dans la littérature
16. Littérature latine > Histoire et critique
17. Politique et littérature > Rome
18. Rome (Empire)

Genre/Form

1. Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Contents

1. Ch. 1 Latin Literature and the Problem of Rome 15 -- Ch. 2 Why Was Latin Literature Invented? 34 -- Ch. 3 Cicero and the Bandits 69 -- Ch. 4 Culture Wars in the First Century B.C.E. 88 -- Ch. 5 Writing as Social Performance 103 -- Ch. 6 Roman Women's Useless Knowledge 122 -- Ch. 7 An Aristocracy of Virtue 137 -- Ch. 8 Pannonia Domanda Est: The Construction of the Imperial Subject through Ovid's Poetry from Exile 151.

Owning institution

1. Princeton University Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references and indexes.