Ritual and the Poetics of Closure in Flavian Literature

Published by De Gruyter 2023

Ritual and the Poetics of Closure in Flavian Literature

Edited by: Angeliki-Nektaria Roumpou

Volume 147 in the series Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110770483

Overview
Contents

About this book

This collection of papers responds to the question of whether a ritual at the end of a text can offer resolution and order or rather a complicated kind of closure. It reveals that ritual can bring but also can thwart closure by alluding to new beginnings. A ritual could be a perfect kind of ending but it hardly ever seems to be. In Flavian literature this is even more apparent because of the complicated political background under which these texts were produced. Ancient religious practices in the closing sections of Flavian texts help us create connections between endings and (new) beginnings, order and disorder, binding and loosening, structure and dissolution which reflects the structure of the Empire in Flavian Rome. Overall, this volume offers a new tool for studying literary endings through ritual, which promotes our understanding of Flavian culture and politics as well as creating a new perception of the use of religion and ritual in Flavian literature: instead of giving a sense of closure, this volume argues that ritual is a medium to increase complexity, to expose ritual actors and to project a generic riskiness of ritual actors also onto the epic actors who are acting before and mostly after a ritual scene.

Author / Editor information

Angeliki-Nektaria Roumpou, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Introduction: Ritual and the Poetics of Closure in Flavian Literature Angeliki-Nektaria Roumpou Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Ritual Closure and Transcendence: Mobilising Ritual Theory for Flavian Epic Jörg Rüpke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
Religious and Social Rituals as Motifs of Closure in Martial’s Epigrams Margot Neger Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
Closural Poetics in Martial, Epigrams 10 Alison Keith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
Ritual and the Impossibility of Song in Statius’ Siluae 5 Laila Dell’Anno Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
Sacrifice, Death, and Closure in Valerius’ Argonautica Book 1 Sophia Papaioannou Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
Mansuri Compos Decoris? Scipio’s Reditus and Exile in Punica 17 Clayton Schroer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
Silius Italicus’ False Rituals, Politics and Poetics: Mock Funerals and Triumphs as Closural Markers in the Punica Theodoros Antoniadis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
Burning up, Melting down, Collapsing in: Fire Imagery, Narrative Articulation, Funerals, and the Incestuous Poetics of Statius’ Thebaid Helen Lovatt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Narrative and Psychological Closure through Ritual at Cyzicus and Circe’s Island Michael Knierim Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Compage soluta: Collapsing Universe and the Boundaries of Epic Poetry (Lucan, Silius, Statius and Claudian’s De raptu) Marco Fucecchi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Epilogue Damien P. Nelis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
List of Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Thematic Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Index of Sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Literary studies scholars, Classicists, Historians, Historians of Religion, Ritual theory scholars, Sociologists
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 252
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 0
- Coloured Illustrations: 0
- Tables: 0
- Coloured Tables: 0
Keywords: literary endings; resolution; open-endedness; religious communication

eBook

Published: August 7, 2023
ISBN: 9783110770483

Hardcover

Published: August 7, 2023
ISBN: 9783110770469