In the preface to Book 1 of his Controversiae, Seneca claims to have written out his accounts of ... more In the preface to Book 1 of his Controversiae, Seneca claims to have written out his accounts of Roman declaimers and their speeches from memory. By attributing preternatural powers of recollection to himself, Seneca highlights that rhetoricians should have a good memory. Using this passage as a starting-point, this chapter delves into the intricacies of Seneca’s relationship with the past. It explores how Seneca upholds the illusion that his testimonies derive from off-the-cuff recollections by organizing his information using ordered lists, a mnemonic technique often recommended in pedagogical texts about oratory. In addition, by presenting each declamation session as a personal memory, Seneca ‘time-travels’: he transports his present audience into past declamations and inserts his own opinions into these past speeches. When read within a cultural-memory framework, these techniques build into Seneca’s overall self-fashioning as the sole commemorator and specialist of Roman declama...
manuscripts, printed texts or modern editions. By way of illustration, Kallendorf presents the r... more manuscripts, printed texts or modern editions. By way of illustration, Kallendorf presents the rst seven lines of Maffeo Vegio’s thirteenth supplementary book to Vergil’s Aeneid (1428) as they appear in several early modern printed editions, and in the more recent critical edition by Bernd Schneider (1985). Deepening these considerations, in ch. 23 (‘Editing Neo-Latin literature’, 394–407) Keith Sidwell addresses questions such as: Which editorial principles does a Neo-Latin text actually require? Which texts should be primarily edited for which audience, and by whom? While these two chapters clearly constitute a highlight of the volume, its overall strength lies in its clarity and text-based approach, demanding no prior knowledge of the subject from the reader. In my opinion, this renders M.’s Guide the most concise of all the comprehensive reference books on Neo-Latin literature. With its short and lucid chapters, equipped with informative footnotes, short guides to Further Reading, and numerous illustrative examples from Neo-Latin texts, the Guide is easy to use for both students and non-specialists with an interest in Neo-Latin (the volume’s most likely target audiences). The substantial inclusion of representative material from Neo-Latin texts in every single chapter should be particularly emphasised as a unique feature of the Guide; it helps to make the authors’ arguments comprehensible in practice as well as in theory, while at the same time providing a more concrete idea of the style, the contexts of usage, the intertextual characteristics and the sheer volume of Neo-Latin literature. Thanks to the integration of both classical and contemporary vernacular literature into each chapter’s discussion, Neo-Latin literature is left seeming far less isolated than it is often (wrongly) presented. Instead, it emerges as a particularly lively strand within a wider network of diverse literary traditions — as it has in fact always been (chs 1 and 2, entitled ‘Conjuring with the Classics’ and ‘Neo-Latin literature and the vernacular’, confront this matter in compelling depth (17–51)). The volume is eventually rounded off by a solid bibliography (408–73) and index (474–88). The bibliography comprises all of the primary and secondary literature cited in the individual volume chapters. Even though the format of a guide necessarily requires a focus on a eld’s core publications, it is striking how many signicant monographs and editions (particularly by younger scholars) have been published internationally over the last ve to eight years that have ended up not being taken into account in the Guide. The concluding index proves a helpful tool for anyone trying to look up detailed information on an author, a work or a subject. In spite of it being purely an index of names, to which authors’ works and related themes are appended, it remains clear and handy for its audience — a designation that could well be applied to the whole of the book.
Situated at the crossroads of rhetoric and fiction, the genre of declamatio offers its practition... more Situated at the crossroads of rhetoric and fiction, the genre of declamatio offers its practitioners the freedom to experiment with new forms of discourse. This volume places the literariness of Roman declamation into the spotlight by showcasing its theoretical influences, stylistic devices, and generic conventions as related by Seneca the Elder, the author of the Controversiae and Suasoriae, which jointly make up the largest surviving collection of declamatory speeches from antiquity. In so doing, it draws attention to the complexity of these texts, and maps out, for the first time, the sociocultural context for their composition, delivery, and reception. The volume’s chapters have been authored by an international group of leading scholars in Latin literature and rhetoric, and explore not only the historical roles of individual declaimers but also the physical and linguistic techniques upon which they collectively drew. In addition, the ‘dark side of declamation’ is illuminated by...
In the preface to Book 1 of his Controversiae, Seneca claims to have written out his accounts of ... more In the preface to Book 1 of his Controversiae, Seneca claims to have written out his accounts of Roman declaimers and their speeches from memory. By attributing preternatural powers of recollection to himself, Seneca highlights that rhetoricians should have a good memory. Using this passage as a starting-point, this chapter delves into the intricacies of Seneca’s relationship with the past. It explores how Seneca upholds the illusion that his testimonies derive from off-the-cuff recollections by organizing his information using ordered lists, a mnemonic technique often recommended in pedagogical texts about oratory. In addition, by presenting each declamation session as a personal memory, Seneca ‘time-travels’: he transports his present audience into past declamations and inserts his own opinions into these past speeches. When read within a cultural-memory framework, these techniques build into Seneca’s overall self-fashioning as the sole commemorator and specialist of Roman declama...
manuscripts, printed texts or modern editions. By way of illustration, Kallendorf presents the r... more manuscripts, printed texts or modern editions. By way of illustration, Kallendorf presents the rst seven lines of Maffeo Vegio’s thirteenth supplementary book to Vergil’s Aeneid (1428) as they appear in several early modern printed editions, and in the more recent critical edition by Bernd Schneider (1985). Deepening these considerations, in ch. 23 (‘Editing Neo-Latin literature’, 394–407) Keith Sidwell addresses questions such as: Which editorial principles does a Neo-Latin text actually require? Which texts should be primarily edited for which audience, and by whom? While these two chapters clearly constitute a highlight of the volume, its overall strength lies in its clarity and text-based approach, demanding no prior knowledge of the subject from the reader. In my opinion, this renders M.’s Guide the most concise of all the comprehensive reference books on Neo-Latin literature. With its short and lucid chapters, equipped with informative footnotes, short guides to Further Reading, and numerous illustrative examples from Neo-Latin texts, the Guide is easy to use for both students and non-specialists with an interest in Neo-Latin (the volume’s most likely target audiences). The substantial inclusion of representative material from Neo-Latin texts in every single chapter should be particularly emphasised as a unique feature of the Guide; it helps to make the authors’ arguments comprehensible in practice as well as in theory, while at the same time providing a more concrete idea of the style, the contexts of usage, the intertextual characteristics and the sheer volume of Neo-Latin literature. Thanks to the integration of both classical and contemporary vernacular literature into each chapter’s discussion, Neo-Latin literature is left seeming far less isolated than it is often (wrongly) presented. Instead, it emerges as a particularly lively strand within a wider network of diverse literary traditions — as it has in fact always been (chs 1 and 2, entitled ‘Conjuring with the Classics’ and ‘Neo-Latin literature and the vernacular’, confront this matter in compelling depth (17–51)). The volume is eventually rounded off by a solid bibliography (408–73) and index (474–88). The bibliography comprises all of the primary and secondary literature cited in the individual volume chapters. Even though the format of a guide necessarily requires a focus on a eld’s core publications, it is striking how many signicant monographs and editions (particularly by younger scholars) have been published internationally over the last ve to eight years that have ended up not being taken into account in the Guide. The concluding index proves a helpful tool for anyone trying to look up detailed information on an author, a work or a subject. In spite of it being purely an index of names, to which authors’ works and related themes are appended, it remains clear and handy for its audience — a designation that could well be applied to the whole of the book.
Situated at the crossroads of rhetoric and fiction, the genre of declamatio offers its practition... more Situated at the crossroads of rhetoric and fiction, the genre of declamatio offers its practitioners the freedom to experiment with new forms of discourse. This volume places the literariness of Roman declamation into the spotlight by showcasing its theoretical influences, stylistic devices, and generic conventions as related by Seneca the Elder, the author of the Controversiae and Suasoriae, which jointly make up the largest surviving collection of declamatory speeches from antiquity. In so doing, it draws attention to the complexity of these texts, and maps out, for the first time, the sociocultural context for their composition, delivery, and reception. The volume’s chapters have been authored by an international group of leading scholars in Latin literature and rhetoric, and explore not only the historical roles of individual declaimers but also the physical and linguistic techniques upon which they collectively drew. In addition, the ‘dark side of declamation’ is illuminated by...
Anatomizing Civil War places at center stage characteristics of Lucan's work that have so far bee... more Anatomizing Civil War places at center stage characteristics of Lucan's work that have so far been interpreted as excessive, or as symptoms of an overly rhetorical culture indicating a lack of substance. By demonstrating that they all contribute to Lucan's poetic technique, Martin T. Dinter shows how they play a fundamental role in shaping and connecting the many episodes of the Bellum Civile that constitute Lucan's epic body. This important volume will be of interest to students of classics and comparative literature as well as literary scholars. All Greek and Latin passages have been translated.
This special issue of thersites (edited by Annemarie Ambühl) addresses artistic representations o... more This special issue of thersites (edited by Annemarie Ambühl) addresses artistic representations of war in literature and other media, focusing especially on the role of sensory perceptions and emotions as well as on gender issues. In line with the transcultural and diachronic outlook of thersites, issues of reception are approached either by applying modern theories and methods to the interpretation of classical texts or by comparing and contrasting ancient and modern responses to war and violence and their impact on human beings and society in general. The issue features contributions that range from Homer to postmodern novels and movies, as well as reviews of thematically related recent publications. Within this wide horizon two thematic clusters emerge: One group of papers studies the narratological, aesthetic and psychological dimensions of (fictional) descriptions of battles and other forms of violence in Latin literature, especially in Caesar’s war commentaries and the epics of Lucan, Valerius Flaccus and Statius, while another group of papers looks at novels that directly or indirectly reflect on experiences from both World Wars and the recent wars in Iraq through a complex engagement with classical narratives and concepts derived from classical antiquity.
Reading Roman Declamation - Seneca the Elder,, 2020
Situated at the crossroads of rhetoric and fiction, the genre of declamatio offers its practition... more Situated at the crossroads of rhetoric and fiction, the genre of declamatio offers its practitioners the freedom to experiment with new forms of discourse. This volume places the literariness of Roman declamation into the spotlight by showcasing its theoretical influences, stylistic devices, and generic conventions as related by Seneca the Elder, the author of the Controversiae and Suasoriae, which jointly make up the largest surviving collection of declamatory speeches from antiquity.
Authored by an international group of leading scholars of Latin literature and rhetoric, the chapters explore not only the historical roles of individual declaimers, but also the physical and linguistic techniques upon which they collectively drew. In addition, the ‘dark side of declamation’ is illuminated by contributions on the competitiveness of the arena and the manipulative potential of declamatory skill. In keeping with the overall treatment of declamation as a literary phenomenon, a section has also been dedicated to intertextuality. Drawing on thought-provoking analyses of Seneca the Elder’s works, the volume highlights the complexity of these texts and maps out, for the first time, the socio-cultural context for their composi- tion, delivery, and reception, and provides a comprehensive, innovative, and up-to-date treatment of Roman declamation that will be essential for both students and scholars in the fields of Latin literature, Republican Roman history, and rhetoric.
Introduction to Dinter/Guerin/Martinho (eds.): Reading Roman Declamation - Calpurnius Flaccus, De... more Introduction to Dinter/Guerin/Martinho (eds.): Reading Roman Declamation - Calpurnius Flaccus, De Gruyter 2017.
As a genre situated at the crossroad of rhetoric and fiction declamatio offers the freedom to exp... more As a genre situated at the crossroad of rhetoric and fiction declamatio offers the freedom to experiment with new forms of discourse. Placing the literariness of declamatio into the spotlight, this volume showcases declamation as a realm of genuine literary creation with its own theoretical underpinning, literary technique and generic conventions. Focusing on the oeuvre of Calpurnius Flaccus this volume demonstrates that these texts constitute a genre on their own, the rhetorical and literary framework of which remains not yet fully mapped. Contributions from an international group of leading scholars from the field of Roman Literature and Rhetoric will explore the question of how Roman Declamation functions as a literary genre. This volume investigates the literary technique and the generic conventions of declamatio in its social, pedagocial and ethical context to determine “the poetics” of Roman Declamation.
This volume is of interest to students and scholars of Rhetoric and Roman Literature.
Martin T. Dinter and Charles Guérin – Introduction: Calpurnius – a postmodern author?
Jonathan E. Mannering – Declamation 2.0 – Reading Calpurnius ‘Whole’
Lydia Spielberg– Non contenti exemplis saeculi vestri: Intertextuality and the Declamatory Tradition in Calpurnius Flaccus
Catherine Schneider – (Re)lire la déclamation romaine: le Soldat de Marius par Calpurnius Flaccus
Alfredo Casamento – Colorem timere peius quam sanguinem. Paintings, family strife and heroism
Andrea Balbo – Problems of Paremiography in Calpurnius Flaccus
Biagio Santorelli – Metrical and accentual clausulae as evidence for the date and origin of Calpurnius Flaccus
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Authored by an international group of leading scholars of Latin literature and rhetoric, the chapters explore not only the historical roles of individual declaimers, but also the physical and linguistic techniques upon which they collectively drew. In addition, the ‘dark side of declamation’ is illuminated by contributions on the competitiveness of the arena and the manipulative potential of declamatory skill. In keeping with the overall treatment of declamation as a literary phenomenon, a section has also been dedicated to intertextuality. Drawing on thought-provoking analyses of Seneca the Elder’s works, the volume highlights the complexity of these texts and maps out, for the first time, the socio-cultural context for their composi- tion, delivery, and reception, and provides a comprehensive, innovative, and up-to-date treatment of Roman declamation that will be essential for both students and scholars in the fields of Latin literature, Republican Roman history, and rhetoric.
This volume is of interest to students and scholars of Rhetoric and Roman Literature.
https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/447712
Review: http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2018/2018-12-08.html
TOC
Martin T. Dinter and Charles Guérin – Introduction: Calpurnius – a postmodern author?
Jonathan E. Mannering – Declamation 2.0 – Reading Calpurnius ‘Whole’
Lydia Spielberg– Non contenti exemplis saeculi vestri: Intertextuality and the Declamatory Tradition in Calpurnius Flaccus
Catherine Schneider – (Re)lire la déclamation romaine: le Soldat de Marius par Calpurnius Flaccus
Alfredo Casamento – Colorem timere peius quam sanguinem. Paintings, family strife and heroism
Andrea Balbo – Problems of Paremiography in Calpurnius Flaccus
Biagio Santorelli – Metrical and accentual clausulae as evidence for the date and origin of Calpurnius Flaccus