Adrian Gully
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633739
- eISBN:
- 9780748653133
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633739.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
Writing letters was an important component of intellectual life in the Middle Islamic period, telling us much about the cultural history of pre-modern Islamic society. This book offers an analysis of ...
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Writing letters was an important component of intellectual life in the Middle Islamic period, telling us much about the cultural history of pre-modern Islamic society. This book offers an analysis of letter-writing, focusing on the notion of the power of the pen. The author looks at the wider context of epistolography, relating it to the power structures of Islamic society in that period, and also attempts to identify some of the similarities and differences between Muslim modes of letter-writing and those of western cultures. One of the strengths of the book is that it is based on a wide range of primary Arabic sources, thus reflecting the broader epistemological importance of letter-writing in Islamic society. The book evaluates the background to letter-writing as the principal representation of state documents and communication; takes a close look at the literary principles employed in that process; considers the important social and intellectual role of the secretary and how he fitted into the power structure of Islamic society during this period; argues that the voluminous collections of letters, written mainly in artistic prose, can be classified as an epistolary genre in their own right; and shows that Islamic letter-writing was very culture specific.Less
Writing letters was an important component of intellectual life in the Middle Islamic period, telling us much about the cultural history of pre-modern Islamic society. This book offers an analysis of letter-writing, focusing on the notion of the power of the pen. The author looks at the wider context of epistolography, relating it to the power structures of Islamic society in that period, and also attempts to identify some of the similarities and differences between Muslim modes of letter-writing and those of western cultures. One of the strengths of the book is that it is based on a wide range of primary Arabic sources, thus reflecting the broader epistemological importance of letter-writing in Islamic society. The book evaluates the background to letter-writing as the principal representation of state documents and communication; takes a close look at the literary principles employed in that process; considers the important social and intellectual role of the secretary and how he fitted into the power structure of Islamic society during this period; argues that the voluminous collections of letters, written mainly in artistic prose, can be classified as an epistolary genre in their own right; and shows that Islamic letter-writing was very culture specific.
James Ker
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195387032
- eISBN:
- 9780199866793
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195387032.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter shows how the Epistulae morales, with their serialized habit of meditatio mortis (“death rehearsal”), create an interpretive framework for Seneca's death. Amid Seneca's innovative uses ...
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This chapter shows how the Epistulae morales, with their serialized habit of meditatio mortis (“death rehearsal”), create an interpretive framework for Seneca's death. Amid Seneca's innovative uses of the epistolary collection as a literary form, the programmatic first letter identifies the paradoxical concept of cotidie mori (“dying each day”) as a central focus. In the course of the correspondence cotidie mori is mapped out across two dimensions: the sequence of letters, with its momentum and multiplicity; and the internal structure of the single letter, with its singularity and closure. These literary manifestations of daily mortality offer a useful framework for thinking about Seneca's own actual death, and about Paulina's willingness to die with him.Less
This chapter shows how the Epistulae morales, with their serialized habit of meditatio mortis (“death rehearsal”), create an interpretive framework for Seneca's death. Amid Seneca's innovative uses of the epistolary collection as a literary form, the programmatic first letter identifies the paradoxical concept of cotidie mori (“dying each day”) as a central focus. In the course of the correspondence cotidie mori is mapped out across two dimensions: the sequence of letters, with its momentum and multiplicity; and the internal structure of the single letter, with its singularity and closure. These literary manifestations of daily mortality offer a useful framework for thinking about Seneca's own actual death, and about Paulina's willingness to die with him.
Cristiana Sogno, Bradley K. Storin, and Edward J. Watts (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520281448
- eISBN:
- 9780520966192
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520281448.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the extant Greek and Latin letter collections of late antiquity (ca. 300-600 C.E.). Bringing together an international team of historians, ...
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This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the extant Greek and Latin letter collections of late antiquity (ca. 300-600 C.E.). Bringing together an international team of historians, classicists, and scholars of religion, it illustrates how letter collections advertised an image of the letter writer and introduces the social and textual histories of each collection. Nearly every chapter focuses on the letter collection of a different late ancient author—from the famous (or even infamous) to the obscure—and investigates its particular issues of content, arrangement, and publication context. On the whole, the volume reveals how late antique letter collections operated as a discrete literary genre with its own conventions, transmission processes, and self-presentational agendas while offering new approaches to interpret both larger letter collections and the individual letters contained within them. Each chapter contributes to a broad argument that scholars should read letter collections as they do representatives of other late antique literary genres, as single texts made up of individual components, with larger thematic and literary characteristics that are as important as those of their component parts.Less
This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the extant Greek and Latin letter collections of late antiquity (ca. 300-600 C.E.). Bringing together an international team of historians, classicists, and scholars of religion, it illustrates how letter collections advertised an image of the letter writer and introduces the social and textual histories of each collection. Nearly every chapter focuses on the letter collection of a different late ancient author—from the famous (or even infamous) to the obscure—and investigates its particular issues of content, arrangement, and publication context. On the whole, the volume reveals how late antique letter collections operated as a discrete literary genre with its own conventions, transmission processes, and self-presentational agendas while offering new approaches to interpret both larger letter collections and the individual letters contained within them. Each chapter contributes to a broad argument that scholars should read letter collections as they do representatives of other late antique literary genres, as single texts made up of individual components, with larger thematic and literary characteristics that are as important as those of their component parts.
Eleanor Dickey
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199609925
- eISBN:
- 9780191741579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609925.003.0017
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter tests the practical usefulness of four theoretical frameworks that have been proposed for the analysis of linguistic politeness: those of Brown and Levinson, Watts, Terkourafi, and Hall. ...
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This chapter tests the practical usefulness of four theoretical frameworks that have been proposed for the analysis of linguistic politeness: those of Brown and Levinson, Watts, Terkourafi, and Hall. A non-technical explanation of these theories and the arguments normally used for and against each is provided. The theories are then used to analyse a corpus of 661 passage from Cicero’s letters (i.e. all passages in the letters where Cicero uses one of his favourite words for ‘please’, rogo, oro, peto, quaeso, or velim). The analysis indicates that politeness theories can be helpful in understanding even very well-known Latin expressions like these, but at the same time no one theory can be applied as a template on its own, because each has some serious drawbacks. Nevertheless several theories have strengths that allow them, if judicously applied in the context of careful examination of evidence, to enhance our understanding significantly.Less
This chapter tests the practical usefulness of four theoretical frameworks that have been proposed for the analysis of linguistic politeness: those of Brown and Levinson, Watts, Terkourafi, and Hall. A non-technical explanation of these theories and the arguments normally used for and against each is provided. The theories are then used to analyse a corpus of 661 passage from Cicero’s letters (i.e. all passages in the letters where Cicero uses one of his favourite words for ‘please’, rogo, oro, peto, quaeso, or velim). The analysis indicates that politeness theories can be helpful in understanding even very well-known Latin expressions like these, but at the same time no one theory can be applied as a template on its own, because each has some serious drawbacks. Nevertheless several theories have strengths that allow them, if judicously applied in the context of careful examination of evidence, to enhance our understanding significantly.
Paola Ceccarelli, Lutz Doering, Thorsten Fögen, and Ingo Gildenhard (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- October 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198804208
- eISBN:
- 9780191842405
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198804208.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The writing of letters often evokes associations of a single author and a single addressee, who share in the exchange of intimate thoughts across distances of space and time. This model underwrites ...
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The writing of letters often evokes associations of a single author and a single addressee, who share in the exchange of intimate thoughts across distances of space and time. This model underwrites such iconic notions as the letter representing an ‘image of the soul of the author’ or constituting ‘one half of a dialogue’. However justified this conception of letter-writing may be in particular instances, it tends to marginalize a range of issues that were central to epistolary communication in the ancient world and have yet to receive sustained and systematic investigation. In particular, it overlooks the fact that letters frequently presuppose and are designed to reinforce communities—or, indeed, constitute them in the first place. This volume offers a theoretically informed Introduction on the interrelation of letters and communities, followed by thirteen case studies from four key cultural configurations in the ancient world: Greece and Rome, Judaism and Christianity. After two papers on the theory and practice of epistolary communication that focus on ancient epistolary theory and the unavoidable presence of a letter-carrier who introduces a communal aspect into any correspondence (Section A), the volume comprises five chapters that explore configurations of power and epistolary communication in the Greek and Roman worlds, from the archaic period to the end of the Hellenistic age (Section B). Five chapters on letters and communities in ancient Judaism and early Christianity follow (Section C). The final Section D (‘Envoi’) contains a paper on the trans-historical or indeed timeless philosophical community Seneca the Younger construes in his Letters to Lucilius.Less
The writing of letters often evokes associations of a single author and a single addressee, who share in the exchange of intimate thoughts across distances of space and time. This model underwrites such iconic notions as the letter representing an ‘image of the soul of the author’ or constituting ‘one half of a dialogue’. However justified this conception of letter-writing may be in particular instances, it tends to marginalize a range of issues that were central to epistolary communication in the ancient world and have yet to receive sustained and systematic investigation. In particular, it overlooks the fact that letters frequently presuppose and are designed to reinforce communities—or, indeed, constitute them in the first place. This volume offers a theoretically informed Introduction on the interrelation of letters and communities, followed by thirteen case studies from four key cultural configurations in the ancient world: Greece and Rome, Judaism and Christianity. After two papers on the theory and practice of epistolary communication that focus on ancient epistolary theory and the unavoidable presence of a letter-carrier who introduces a communal aspect into any correspondence (Section A), the volume comprises five chapters that explore configurations of power and epistolary communication in the Greek and Roman worlds, from the archaic period to the end of the Hellenistic age (Section B). Five chapters on letters and communities in ancient Judaism and early Christianity follow (Section C). The final Section D (‘Envoi’) contains a paper on the trans-historical or indeed timeless philosophical community Seneca the Younger construes in his Letters to Lucilius.
Adrian Gully
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633739
- eISBN:
- 9780748653133
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633739.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
The epistle as a representation of Arabic literary genres has a long history. Historical and literary sources abound with samples of letters believed to have been exchanged during the early Islamic ...
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The epistle as a representation of Arabic literary genres has a long history. Historical and literary sources abound with samples of letters believed to have been exchanged during the early Islamic period, which provide a glimpse into the early political and social activity in Islamic society and into the early Arabic prose style. Written contracts and epistles existed in the advent of Islam, and the commandment to register debts with a scribe is found in the Qur'an. Epistolography, the art or science of letter-writing, is believed to have developed quickly into the most important form of writing in Islamic society. This chapter examines the background of letter-writing in the Islamic Middle period, particularly during the 5th to 9th/11th to 15th centuries. While it is assumed that many of the characteristics of letter-writing in pre-modern Islamic society are indicative of the cultural, historical and intellectual trends, as well as the unique literary style, of Arabic letter-writing, Chapter 1 also examines to what extent letter-writing in Western culture has influenced Arabic epistolary writing. It also discusses insā, which serves as key to the artistic prose style that dominated Arabic literature for several centuries, as well as some of the principles of insā, which have been carried out through the modern period.Less
The epistle as a representation of Arabic literary genres has a long history. Historical and literary sources abound with samples of letters believed to have been exchanged during the early Islamic period, which provide a glimpse into the early political and social activity in Islamic society and into the early Arabic prose style. Written contracts and epistles existed in the advent of Islam, and the commandment to register debts with a scribe is found in the Qur'an. Epistolography, the art or science of letter-writing, is believed to have developed quickly into the most important form of writing in Islamic society. This chapter examines the background of letter-writing in the Islamic Middle period, particularly during the 5th to 9th/11th to 15th centuries. While it is assumed that many of the characteristics of letter-writing in pre-modern Islamic society are indicative of the cultural, historical and intellectual trends, as well as the unique literary style, of Arabic letter-writing, Chapter 1 also examines to what extent letter-writing in Western culture has influenced Arabic epistolary writing. It also discusses insā, which serves as key to the artistic prose style that dominated Arabic literature for several centuries, as well as some of the principles of insā, which have been carried out through the modern period.
Adrian Gully
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633739
- eISBN:
- 9780748653133
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633739.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
The prominence of epistolography prose has remained because it was effectively guaranteed by a debate that attempted to justify the superiority of prose over poetry, and to a lesser extent, prose ...
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The prominence of epistolography prose has remained because it was effectively guaranteed by a debate that attempted to justify the superiority of prose over poetry, and to a lesser extent, prose over oratory. The popularity of epistolography prose was also sustained by the very fact that the secretary controlled the literary climate to which the epistolary genre belonged, and exploited that situation to emphasise that his pen was also his sword. This chapter aims to determine why and how letter-writing come to prominence as the most important form of artistic prose communication, and how it remained the most popular form of writing for many centuries. It discusses the complex relationship between poetry, oratory and prose in Arabic literature as it is presented by the pre-modern literary critics, and illustrates how some of them argued that epistolary prose was the supreme literary art form. The discussion is balanced by brief evaluation of those writers who attempted to assert the authority of poetry over prose.Less
The prominence of epistolography prose has remained because it was effectively guaranteed by a debate that attempted to justify the superiority of prose over poetry, and to a lesser extent, prose over oratory. The popularity of epistolography prose was also sustained by the very fact that the secretary controlled the literary climate to which the epistolary genre belonged, and exploited that situation to emphasise that his pen was also his sword. This chapter aims to determine why and how letter-writing come to prominence as the most important form of artistic prose communication, and how it remained the most popular form of writing for many centuries. It discusses the complex relationship between poetry, oratory and prose in Arabic literature as it is presented by the pre-modern literary critics, and illustrates how some of them argued that epistolary prose was the supreme literary art form. The discussion is balanced by brief evaluation of those writers who attempted to assert the authority of poetry over prose.
Cristiana Sogno, Bradley K. Storin, and Edward J. Watts
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520281448
- eISBN:
- 9780520966192
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520281448.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter introduces the reader to the book as a whole. The volume establishes a few basic starting points for interpreting late antique letters and letter collections. First, it rejects the ...
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This chapter introduces the reader to the book as a whole. The volume establishes a few basic starting points for interpreting late antique letters and letter collections. First, it rejects the letter/epistle dichotomy established by Adolf Deissmann in the early 20th century in favor of a much broader conception of the epistolary genre. Second, it insists that readers conceive of authorship, complete with generic design and self-presentational concerns, in relation to the editorial activity of compiling late antique letter collections. Third, it suggests that the engine driving the popularity of letter collections was the dramatic increase in civil and military bureaucracy beginning in the 4th century. Social competition was in full force, and letter collections offered new tools with which elites could construct novel self-presentations.Less
This chapter introduces the reader to the book as a whole. The volume establishes a few basic starting points for interpreting late antique letters and letter collections. First, it rejects the letter/epistle dichotomy established by Adolf Deissmann in the early 20th century in favor of a much broader conception of the epistolary genre. Second, it insists that readers conceive of authorship, complete with generic design and self-presentational concerns, in relation to the editorial activity of compiling late antique letter collections. Third, it suggests that the engine driving the popularity of letter collections was the dramatic increase in civil and military bureaucracy beginning in the 4th century. Social competition was in full force, and letter collections offered new tools with which elites could construct novel self-presentations.
Paola Ceccarelli
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199675593
- eISBN:
- 9780191757174
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199675593.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The book offers a history of the development of letter writing in ancient Greece from the archaic to the early Hellenistic period. At the end of the fifth and beginning of the fourth century a ...
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The book offers a history of the development of letter writing in ancient Greece from the archaic to the early Hellenistic period. At the end of the fifth and beginning of the fourth century a turning point in epistolography takes place, as an epistolary language appropriate to, and standard for, private communication is developed. Highlighting the specificity of letter-writing, as opposed to other forms of communication and writing, the volume looks at documentary letters, but also traces the role of embedded letters in the texts of the ancient historians, in drama, and in the speeches of the orators. While a letter is in itself the transcription of an oral message and, as such, can be either truthful or deceitful, letters acquired negative connotations in the fifth century when used for transactions concerning the public and not the private sphere. Viewed as the instrument of tyrants or near eastern kings, these negative connotations were evident especially in Athenian drama, where comedy and tragedy testified to an underlying concern with epistolary communication. In other areas of the Greek world, such as Sparta or Crete, the letter may have been seen as an unproblematic instrument for managing public policies: inscriptions document the official use of letters by the Hellenistic kings, and by some poleis as well.Less
The book offers a history of the development of letter writing in ancient Greece from the archaic to the early Hellenistic period. At the end of the fifth and beginning of the fourth century a turning point in epistolography takes place, as an epistolary language appropriate to, and standard for, private communication is developed. Highlighting the specificity of letter-writing, as opposed to other forms of communication and writing, the volume looks at documentary letters, but also traces the role of embedded letters in the texts of the ancient historians, in drama, and in the speeches of the orators. While a letter is in itself the transcription of an oral message and, as such, can be either truthful or deceitful, letters acquired negative connotations in the fifth century when used for transactions concerning the public and not the private sphere. Viewed as the instrument of tyrants or near eastern kings, these negative connotations were evident especially in Athenian drama, where comedy and tragedy testified to an underlying concern with epistolary communication. In other areas of the Greek world, such as Sparta or Crete, the letter may have been seen as an unproblematic instrument for managing public policies: inscriptions document the official use of letters by the Hellenistic kings, and by some poleis as well.
Karen Radner (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199354771
- eISBN:
- 9780199354795
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199354771.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, World History: BCE to 500CE
This book’s central thesis is simple: long-distance communication plays a key role in the cohesion and stability of early states and in turn, these states invest heavily in long-term communication ...
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This book’s central thesis is simple: long-distance communication plays a key role in the cohesion and stability of early states and in turn, these states invest heavily in long-term communication strategies and networks. As reliable and fast long-distance communication facilitates the successful delegation of power from the center to the local administrations the creation and maintenance of the necessary infrastructure to support this is a key strategy of the central state, especially in the case of early empires where the need to control a geographically extensive region from a relatively small central unit (be that conceived as a locality or a group of people) presents a permanent challenge to state cohesion. Written by established experts whose research focuses on ancient state letters and the study of early empires, each chapter introduces and contextualizes the surviving state correspondences before analyzing the state’s communication strategies and information network. Five chapters deal with the dominant Iron Age empires of the Mediterranean and the Middle East: the Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, Persian and Seleucid empires, and the Imperium Romanum. Two more chapters are devoted to New Kingdom Egypt and the Hittite state in its so-called imperial phase, the two major state systems of the Late Bronze Age. The resultant book covers the period from the 15th century BC to the 6th century AD. Rich illustrations allow the reader to appreciate the materiality of the state correspondence and support the many primary source quotes in making tangible the intersecting streams of information that connected and sustained ancient states.Less
This book’s central thesis is simple: long-distance communication plays a key role in the cohesion and stability of early states and in turn, these states invest heavily in long-term communication strategies and networks. As reliable and fast long-distance communication facilitates the successful delegation of power from the center to the local administrations the creation and maintenance of the necessary infrastructure to support this is a key strategy of the central state, especially in the case of early empires where the need to control a geographically extensive region from a relatively small central unit (be that conceived as a locality or a group of people) presents a permanent challenge to state cohesion. Written by established experts whose research focuses on ancient state letters and the study of early empires, each chapter introduces and contextualizes the surviving state correspondences before analyzing the state’s communication strategies and information network. Five chapters deal with the dominant Iron Age empires of the Mediterranean and the Middle East: the Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, Persian and Seleucid empires, and the Imperium Romanum. Two more chapters are devoted to New Kingdom Egypt and the Hittite state in its so-called imperial phase, the two major state systems of the Late Bronze Age. The resultant book covers the period from the 15th century BC to the 6th century AD. Rich illustrations allow the reader to appreciate the materiality of the state correspondence and support the many primary source quotes in making tangible the intersecting streams of information that connected and sustained ancient states.
Stanley E. Porter
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199654314
- eISBN:
- 9780191751370
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654314.003.0015
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter first evaluates the older and current trends in New Testament rhetorical criticism before examining how the Hellenistic rhetorical culture of Greece and Rome influenced one of the most ...
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This chapter first evaluates the older and current trends in New Testament rhetorical criticism before examining how the Hellenistic rhetorical culture of Greece and Rome influenced one of the most famous apologists of the new Christian faith, Paul of Tarsus. Paul's letters reveal elements of rhetorical form and argumentation, and have consequently attracted great scholarly attention. Yet it is his orations which can be studied more profitably from a rhetorical perspective: Paul's speeches demonstrate an awareness of conventions, forms, structures, and arguments according to the rhetorical situation they are addressing. Furthermore, in this analysis of the speeches in Acts, the chapter traces a number of continuities between past models of rhetoric, as well as charting how those models changed in line with the need for a new audience.Less
This chapter first evaluates the older and current trends in New Testament rhetorical criticism before examining how the Hellenistic rhetorical culture of Greece and Rome influenced one of the most famous apologists of the new Christian faith, Paul of Tarsus. Paul's letters reveal elements of rhetorical form and argumentation, and have consequently attracted great scholarly attention. Yet it is his orations which can be studied more profitably from a rhetorical perspective: Paul's speeches demonstrate an awareness of conventions, forms, structures, and arguments according to the rhetorical situation they are addressing. Furthermore, in this analysis of the speeches in Acts, the chapter traces a number of continuities between past models of rhetoric, as well as charting how those models changed in line with the need for a new audience.
Anna Peterson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190697099
- eISBN:
- 9780190697129
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190697099.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Alciphron’s collection of 123 fictional letters recreate in miniature the world of Menandrian New Comedy. Three of these letters, however, involve a basic scenario that is reminiscent of Clouds: ...
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Alciphron’s collection of 123 fictional letters recreate in miniature the world of Menandrian New Comedy. Three of these letters, however, involve a basic scenario that is reminiscent of Clouds: disputes between a father and son and, in one case, a hetaira and her lover, regarding the corrupting influence of philosophers. Language borrowed directly from Aristophanes’s play further cements this connection. In this context, Old Comedy is subsumed into a New Comic context, and Clouds emerges as a literary shorthand for denoting corrupt philosophers. Yet the epistolary format also provides Alciphron with a way to recreate the dramatic elements of the original play: his readers are given unfettered access to the characters and are asked to fill in what is left unsaid by the letter from their knowledge of Aristophanes’s play.Less
Alciphron’s collection of 123 fictional letters recreate in miniature the world of Menandrian New Comedy. Three of these letters, however, involve a basic scenario that is reminiscent of Clouds: disputes between a father and son and, in one case, a hetaira and her lover, regarding the corrupting influence of philosophers. Language borrowed directly from Aristophanes’s play further cements this connection. In this context, Old Comedy is subsumed into a New Comic context, and Clouds emerges as a literary shorthand for denoting corrupt philosophers. Yet the epistolary format also provides Alciphron with a way to recreate the dramatic elements of the original play: his readers are given unfettered access to the characters and are asked to fill in what is left unsaid by the letter from their knowledge of Aristophanes’s play.
Caroline Bishop
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- December 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198829423
- eISBN:
- 9780191867941
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198829423.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter hypothesizes about the nature of Cicero’s planned but never published letter collection, and argues that Cicero was inspired both by Greek epistolary theory and by Greek letter ...
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This chapter hypothesizes about the nature of Cicero’s planned but never published letter collection, and argues that Cicero was inspired both by Greek epistolary theory and by Greek letter collections of classical figures like Plato and Demosthenes. Many of these letters were elaborate self-defences whose authenticity was vouched for by epistolary theory, in which letters were taken as unmediated glimpses of the sender’s true character. For this reason, this chapter argues that Cicero likely planned to publish a collection of his letters about the civil war. Many of these letters portray Cicero as an ideologically consistent statesman who foresaw the outcome of the war but joined the losing side out of a sense of duty. A version of this account published in letter form would have had a unique air of authenticity, and been an important component in the literary legacy of a classic.Less
This chapter hypothesizes about the nature of Cicero’s planned but never published letter collection, and argues that Cicero was inspired both by Greek epistolary theory and by Greek letter collections of classical figures like Plato and Demosthenes. Many of these letters were elaborate self-defences whose authenticity was vouched for by epistolary theory, in which letters were taken as unmediated glimpses of the sender’s true character. For this reason, this chapter argues that Cicero likely planned to publish a collection of his letters about the civil war. Many of these letters portray Cicero as an ideologically consistent statesman who foresaw the outcome of the war but joined the losing side out of a sense of duty. A version of this account published in letter form would have had a unique air of authenticity, and been an important component in the literary legacy of a classic.
John Bodel
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198729464
- eISBN:
- 9780191796357
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198729464.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter considers the interrelated questions of the mode and sequence of publication of Pliny’s letters and argues that signs of artistic arrangement within and among the individual books point ...
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This chapter considers the interrelated questions of the mode and sequence of publication of Pliny’s letters and argues that signs of artistic arrangement within and among the individual books point to both the original groupings and to Pliny’s broader literary goals. It employs two types of arguments not previously brought to bear on the issue: literary critical arguments focused on significantly placed thematic and verbal correspondences evoking intertextually poignant analogues for Pliny’s literary aspirations, and philological/cultural-historical arguments centring on the form in which Pliny’s books have come down to us and the various contemporary modes of publication of short collections of miscellaneous occasional works. A brief conclusion puts forward a summary hypothesis of the most probable sequence of publication of the nine books of private letters but places less weight on details of the proposed reconstruction than on the implications of its methodology for Pliny’s aims as a literary artist.Less
This chapter considers the interrelated questions of the mode and sequence of publication of Pliny’s letters and argues that signs of artistic arrangement within and among the individual books point to both the original groupings and to Pliny’s broader literary goals. It employs two types of arguments not previously brought to bear on the issue: literary critical arguments focused on significantly placed thematic and verbal correspondences evoking intertextually poignant analogues for Pliny’s literary aspirations, and philological/cultural-historical arguments centring on the form in which Pliny’s books have come down to us and the various contemporary modes of publication of short collections of miscellaneous occasional works. A brief conclusion puts forward a summary hypothesis of the most probable sequence of publication of the nine books of private letters but places less weight on details of the proposed reconstruction than on the implications of its methodology for Pliny’s aims as a literary artist.
Paola Ceccarelli, Lutz Doering, Thorsten Fögen, and Ingo Gildenhard
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- October 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198804208
- eISBN:
- 9780191842405
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198804208.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The Introduction surveys scholarly work on letter-writing in the ancient world. While generally of a high standard and often interdisciplinary in nature, bridging such fields as Near Eastern and ...
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The Introduction surveys scholarly work on letter-writing in the ancient world. While generally of a high standard and often interdisciplinary in nature, bridging such fields as Near Eastern and Jewish Studies, Biblical Studies, Patristics, and Classics, research on ancient epistolography often marginalizes the role of letters in constituting and sustaining communities of various stripes (political, social, ethnic, religious, philosophical). The introduction explores various reasons for this oversight (the overriding importance given to face-to-face communication in public settings, the apparently ‘private’ nature of corresponding via letters, its low rank in the hierarchy of genres, and the marginal status this aspect of letter-writing has in ancient epistolary theory) before outlining why letters played such a vital role in ancient community-building, with an emphasis on long-distance communication, permanence, and the genre’s ideological flexibility and strong pro-social outlook. The second half offers a narrative of the volume, with summaries of its thirteen case studies.Less
The Introduction surveys scholarly work on letter-writing in the ancient world. While generally of a high standard and often interdisciplinary in nature, bridging such fields as Near Eastern and Jewish Studies, Biblical Studies, Patristics, and Classics, research on ancient epistolography often marginalizes the role of letters in constituting and sustaining communities of various stripes (political, social, ethnic, religious, philosophical). The introduction explores various reasons for this oversight (the overriding importance given to face-to-face communication in public settings, the apparently ‘private’ nature of corresponding via letters, its low rank in the hierarchy of genres, and the marginal status this aspect of letter-writing has in ancient epistolary theory) before outlining why letters played such a vital role in ancient community-building, with an emphasis on long-distance communication, permanence, and the genre’s ideological flexibility and strong pro-social outlook. The second half offers a narrative of the volume, with summaries of its thirteen case studies.
Thorsten Fögen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- October 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198804208
- eISBN:
- 9780191842405
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198804208.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The chapter explores reflections on the practice of letter-writing, with equal attention to instructional handbooks (esp. Demetrius’ Περὶ ἑρμηνείας, Iulius Victor’s Rhetorica, Pseudo-Demetrius’ ...
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The chapter explores reflections on the practice of letter-writing, with equal attention to instructional handbooks (esp. Demetrius’ Περὶ ἑρμηνείας, Iulius Victor’s Rhetorica, Pseudo-Demetrius’ Τύποι ἐπιστολικοί, Pseudo-Libanius’ Ἐπιστολιμαῖοι χαρακτῆρες, and Erasmus of Rotterdam’s De conscribendis epistolis) and the meta-generic statements that letter-writers routinely embed in their correspondence (with a special focus on Cicero, Ovid, Seneca, and Pliny the Younger). In both types of sources, what one might call the social dimension of style registers as a primary concern: in order for the letter to fulfil its purpose, namely to generate a special bond between sender and recipient, the chosen idiolect has to be ‘appropriate’ (πρέπον/aptum) to the interpersonal relationship and its specific circumstances and exigencies. Shared stylistic values and the willingness of the letter-writer to adjust his character to that of the recipient generate a sense of community between the correspondents.Less
The chapter explores reflections on the practice of letter-writing, with equal attention to instructional handbooks (esp. Demetrius’ Περὶ ἑρμηνείας, Iulius Victor’s Rhetorica, Pseudo-Demetrius’ Τύποι ἐπιστολικοί, Pseudo-Libanius’ Ἐπιστολιμαῖοι χαρακτῆρες, and Erasmus of Rotterdam’s De conscribendis epistolis) and the meta-generic statements that letter-writers routinely embed in their correspondence (with a special focus on Cicero, Ovid, Seneca, and Pliny the Younger). In both types of sources, what one might call the social dimension of style registers as a primary concern: in order for the letter to fulfil its purpose, namely to generate a special bond between sender and recipient, the chosen idiolect has to be ‘appropriate’ (πρέπον/aptum) to the interpersonal relationship and its specific circumstances and exigencies. Shared stylistic values and the willingness of the letter-writer to adjust his character to that of the recipient generate a sense of community between the correspondents.
Thomas Nail
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- June 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190924034
- eISBN:
- 9780190924065
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190924034.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter continues the thesis of Chapter 10 in demonstrating that a kinesthetic shift occurred in the arts from a centrifugal to a more tensional pattern of motion over the course of the Middle ...
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This chapter continues the thesis of Chapter 10 in demonstrating that a kinesthetic shift occurred in the arts from a centrifugal to a more tensional pattern of motion over the course of the Middle Ages. This chapter demonstrates that same thesis in the arts of perspective, keyboard music, and epistolography. The argument is that each of these major fields is defined predominately by a distinctly tensional pattern of motion and a relational aesthetics. All the newly dominant arts of the Middle Ages are defined by the kinesthetic pattern of relational or linked tensional motions holding images together and apart. The brilliant insight of the Middle Ages is that aesthetic form is nothing other than the polygonal intersection of a network of material kinetic relations.Less
This chapter continues the thesis of Chapter 10 in demonstrating that a kinesthetic shift occurred in the arts from a centrifugal to a more tensional pattern of motion over the course of the Middle Ages. This chapter demonstrates that same thesis in the arts of perspective, keyboard music, and epistolography. The argument is that each of these major fields is defined predominately by a distinctly tensional pattern of motion and a relational aesthetics. All the newly dominant arts of the Middle Ages are defined by the kinesthetic pattern of relational or linked tensional motions holding images together and apart. The brilliant insight of the Middle Ages is that aesthetic form is nothing other than the polygonal intersection of a network of material kinetic relations.
