Intertextuality and the Reading of Roman Poetry

by Lowell Edmunds

Overview

How can we explain the process by which a literary text refers to another text? For the past decade and a half, intertextuality has been a central concern of scholars and readers of Roman poetry. In Intertextuality and the Reading of Roman Poetry, Lowell Edmunds proceeds from such fundamental concepts as "author," "text," and "reader," which he then applies to passages from Vergil, Horace, Ovid, and Catullus. Edmunds combines close readings of poems with analysis of recent theoretical models to argue that allusion has no linguistic or semiotic basis: there is nothing in addition to the alluding words that causes the allusion or the reference to be made. Intertextuality is a matter of reading.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801875403
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Lowell Edmunds is a professor of classics at Rutgers University. His many books include Approaches to Greek Myth; Oedipus: The Ancient Legend and Its Later Analogues; and Poet, Public, and Performance in Ancient Greece all available in paperback from Johns Hopkins.

Lowell Edmunds is an emeritus professor of classics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. His books include Intertextuality and the Reading of Roman Poetry and Poet, Public, and Performance in Ancient Greece, both published by Johns Hopkins.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1. Text
Chapter 2. Poet
Chapter 3. Reader
Chapter 4. Persona
Chapter 5. Addressee: A Dialogue
Chapter 6. Possible Worlds
Chapter 7. Reading in Rome, First Century B.C.E.
Chapter 8. Intertextuality: Terms and Theory
Conclusion
Works Cited
Index of Ancient Citations
General Index

What People are Saying About This

Ralph Hexter

An original and bold application of theories of intertextuality and readership to Roman poetry. Edmunds solidly engages a vast array of scholarship and criticism, in English, Italian, French, and German.

— Ralph Hexter, University of California, Berkeley

From the Publisher

An original and bold application of theories of intertextuality and readership to Roman poetry. Edmunds solidly engages a vast array of scholarship and criticism, in English, Italian, French, and German.
—Ralph Hexter, University of California, Berkeley

Editorial Reviews

Intertextuality describes the process by which a literary text refers to another text. In this volume, the theories of intertextuality and readership are applied to passages from the poems of Vergil, Horace, Ovid, and Catullus. Individual chapters discuss author, persona, text, reader, addressee, and the ancient Roman reader. Edmunds (classics, Rutgers U.) also analyzes recent theoretical models to argue that allusion has no linguistic or semiotic basis but is purely a matter of reading. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Studded with striking observations and suggestive formulations.
—Charles Platter, Religious Studies Review

Lowell Edmunds has written a book that provides what is expected and appreciated in a theoretical study: the scholarship is extensive and well organized into arguments which are themselves descriptive, provocative, challenging, and supported by a close reading of a variety of selections from Catullus, Horace, Vergil, and Ovid.
—David J. Kuyat, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

For the graduate student and for the consenting Latinist, this is a book which enters a debate with verve and commitment that should provoke yet further discussion.
—Simon Goldhill, Classical World

From the Publisher

Lowell Edmunds has written a book that provides what is expected and appreciated in a theoretical study: the scholarship is extensive and well organized into arguments which are themselves descriptive, provocative, challenging, and supported by a close reading of a variety of selections from Catullus, Horace, Vergil, and Ovid.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review - David J. Kuyat

Studded with striking observations and suggestive formulations.

Religious Studies Review - Charles Platter

For the graduate student and for the consenting Latinist, this is a book which enters a debate with verve and commitment that should provoke yet further discussion.

Classical World - Simon Goldhill

For the graduate student and for the consenting Latinist, this is a book which enters a debate with verve and commitment that should provoke yet further discussion.

— Simon Goldhill

Classical World

Lowell Edmunds has written a book that provides what is expected and appreciated in a theoretical study: the scholarship is extensive and well organized into arguments which are themselves descriptive, provocative, challenging, and supported by a close reading of a variety of selections from Catullus, Horace, Vergil, and Ovid.

— David J. Kuyat

Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Studded with striking observations and suggestive formulations.

— Charles Platter

Religious Studies Review