The Fiction of Occasion in Hellenistic and Roman Poetry

Adrian Gramps

Published by De Gruyter 2021

The Fiction of Occasion in Hellenistic and Roman Poetry

Adrian Gramps

Volume 118 in the series Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110731606

Overview
Contents

About this book

The aim of this book is to devise a method for approaching the problem of presence in Hellenistic and Roman poetry. The problem of presence, as defined here, is the problem of the availability or accessibility to the reader of the fictional worlds disclosed by poetry. From Callimachus’ Hymns to the Odes of Horace, poets of this era repeatedly challenge readers by beckoning them to explore fictive spaces which are at once familiar and otherworldly, realms of the imagination which are nevertheless firmly rooted in the lived reality of the poets and their contemporaries. We too, when we read these poems, may feel simultaneously a sense of being transported to a world apart and of being seized upon by the poem’s address in the here and now of reading. The fiction of occasion is proposed as a new conceptual tool for understanding how these poems produce such problematic presences and what varieties of experience they make possible for their readers. The fiction of occasion is defined as a phenomenon whereby a poem is fictionally framed as part of a material event or ‘occasion’ with which the reader is invited to engage through the medium of the senses. The book explores this concept through close readings of key authors from the corpus of first-person poetry written in Greek and Latin between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE, with a focus on Callimachus, Bion, Catullus, Propertius, and Horace. The ultimate purpose of these readings is to move towards developing a new vocabulary for conceptualising ancient poetry as an embodied experience.

Author / Editor information

Adrian Gramps, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom.

Reviews

"Abschließend kann man festhalten, dass G. mit seiner Studie die bisherige Perspektive auf Kallimachos, Horaz und die anderen überzeugend erweitert und einem ihre Dichtung im emphatischen
Sinne näherbringt." Helge Baumann in: Gnomon 2023/2

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Foreword Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Introduction Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
1 Rethinking Mimetic Poetry and Callimachus’ Hymn to Apollo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2 Figuring Occasion in Propertius 4.6 and Bion’s Adonis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
2 Occasion and Presence in Horace, Odes I Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	76
4 Occasioning the Choral in Horace, Odes IV Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
5 Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Index Rerum et Nominum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Index Locorum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Graduate students and scholars in classical studies, literary theory, world literature and comparative literature.
Pages
- Front matter: 18
- Main content: 209
Keywords: Hellenistic poetry; Latin poetry; literary theory; fictionality

eBook

Published: July 5, 2021
ISBN: 9783110731606

Hardcover

Published: July 5, 2021
ISBN: 9783110736991

Paperback

Published: May 8, 2023
ISBN: 9783111270647