The Arts of Imitation in Latin Prose
The Arts of Imitation in Latin Prose
$160.00
USDImitation was central to Roman culture, and a staple of Latin poetry. But it was also fundamental to prose. This book brings together two monuments of the High Empire, Quintilian's Institutio oratoria ('Training of the orator') and Pliny's Epistles, to reveal a spectacular project of textual and ethical imitation. As a young man Pliny had studied with Quintilian. In the Epistles he meticulously transforms and subsumes his teacher's masterpiece, together with poetry and prose ranging from Homer to Tacitus' Dialogus de oratoribus. In teasing apart Pliny's rich intertextual weave, this book reinterprets Quintilian through the eyes of one of his sharpest readers, radically reassesses the Epistles as a work of minute textual artistry, and makes a major intervention in scholarly debates on intertextuality, imitation and rhetorical culture at Rome. The result is a landmark study with far-reaching implications for how we read Latin literature.
- Demonstrates that Latin prose intertextuality is a far greater phenomenon than traditionally thought
- Reveals Pliny the Younger's Epistles as a spectacular project of literary transformation, providing brilliant and original insights into a major work of the canon
- The argument is grounded in close readings of Latin texts, which are accompanied by English translations
Reviews & endorsements
'This original and learned book, written in sparkling and stylish prose, makes a fundamental contribution to our appreciation of Pliny the Younger’s artistry. Christopher Whitton shows that there is much more Quintilian in Pliny’s Epistles than anyone had realised - and that recognising Quintilian’s presence is of vital importance for understanding Pliny’s literary project. With complete control of the sources, Whitton takes the reader on an unexpectedly fascinating tour of Quintilian’s earliest reception, and along the way sheds new light on Latin prose intertextuality and the quintessentially Roman practice of imitatio.' Tom Keeline, Washington University, St Louis
‘The Arts of Imitation in Latin Prose is a very useful addition to Plinian scholarship and, more generally, a milestone for all those concerned with intertextuality.’ Lorenzo Vespoli, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Product details
June 2019Adobe eBook Reader
9781108758895
0 pages
1 b/w illus.
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- 1. Two scenes from the life of an artist
- 2. Setting the stage
- 3. Brief encounters
- 4. Dancing with dialectic
- 5. Through the looking-glass
- 6. On length, in brief (Ep. 1.20)
- 7. Letters to Lupercus
- 8. Studiorum secessus (Ep. 7.9)
- 9. Docendo discitur
- 10. Reflections of an author
- 11. Quintilian, Pliny, Tacitus
- 12. Beginnings.
