Pastoral Inscriptions: Reading And Writing Virgil's Eclogues (Classical Literature and Society) - Softcover

Book 6 of 11: Classical Literature and Society

Breed, Brian W

 
9780715634493: Pastoral Inscriptions: Reading And Writing Virgil's Eclogues (Classical Literature and Society)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0715634496 ISBN 13: 9780715634493
Publisher: Bristol Classical Press, 2006

Synopsis

Virgil's "Eclogues" represent the introduction of a new genre, pastoral, to Latin literature. Generic markers of pastoral in the "Eclogues" include not only the representation of the singing and speaking of shepherd characters, but also the learned density of the text itself. Here, Brian W. Breed examines the tension between representations of orality in Virgil's pastoral world and the intense textuality of his pastoral poetry. The book argues that separation between speakers and their language in the "Eclogues" is not merely pastoral preciosity. Rather, it shows how Virgil uses representations of orality as the point of comparison for measuring both the capacity and the limitations of the "Eclogues" as a written text that will be encountered by reading audiences. The importance of genre is considered both in terms of how pastoral might be defined for the particular literary-historical moment in which Virgil was writing and in light of the subsequent European pastoral tradition.

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About the Author

Brian W. Breed is Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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Publisher
Bristol Classical Press
Publication date
2006
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0715634496
ISBN 13 
9780715634493
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
208