Roman Literary Culture: From Cicero to Apuleius
by Elaine Fantham
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Description
This new edition broadens the scope of Fantham's study of literary production and its reception in Rome. Scholars of ancient literature have often focused on the works and lives of major authors rather than on such questions as how these works were produced and who read them. In Roman Literary Culture, Elaine Fantham fills that void by examining the changing social and historical context of literary production in ancient Rome and its empire. Fantham's first edition discussed the habits of show more Roman readers and developments in their means of access to literature, from booksellers and copyists to pirated publications and libraries. She examines the issues of patronage and the utility of literature and shows how the constraints of the physical object itself--the ancient "book"--influenced the practice of both reading and writing. She also explores the ways in which ancient criticism and critical attitudes reflected cultural assumptions of the time. In this second edition, Fantham expands the scope of her study. In the new first chapter, she examines the beginning of Roman literature--more than a century before the critical studies of Cicero and Varro. She discusses broader entertainment culture, which consisted of live performances of comedy and tragedy as well as oral presentations of the epic. A new final chapter looks at Pagan and Christian literature from the third to fifth centuries, showing how this period in Roman literature reflected its foundations in the literary culture of the late republic and Augustan age. This edition also includes a new preface and an updated bibliography. show lessTags
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Author Information
16+ Works 531 Members
Elaine Fantham taught for eighteen years at the University of Toronto and was Giger Professor of Latin at Princeton University until her retirement in 2000.
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Ancient Society and History (1996)
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Roman Literary Culture: From Cicero to Apuleius
- People/Characters
- Cicero, Marcus Tullius, 106-43 BC; Lucius Apuleius
Classifications
- Genres
- Literature Studies and Criticism, Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 870.9 — Literature & rhetoric Latin & Italic literatures Latin literature and literatures of related Italic languages History and criticism of Latin literature
- LCC
- PA6003 .F36 — Language and Literature Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature Roman literature Literary history
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 76
- Popularity
- 416,773
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
