
Pastoral Inscriptions
Reading and Writing Virgil's Eclogues
Brian W. Breed(Author)
Bristol Classical Press
Published on 3. November 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-0-7156-3449-3 (ISBN)
Description
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.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
324 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7156-3449-3 (9780715634493)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
11/2013
1st Edition
Bristol Classical Press
€39.99
Available for download

E-Book
10/2013
1st Edition
Bristol Classical Press
€39.99
Available for download
Person
Brian W. Breed is Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Massachusetts Amherst.