Horace's Narrative Odes

di Michèle Lowrie (Autore)

Oxford University Press, 1997

Narrative has not traditionally been a subject in the analysis of lyric poetry. This book deconstructs the polarity that divides and binds lyric and narrative means of representation in Horace's Odes. While myth is a canonical feature of Pindaric epinician, Horace cannot adopt the Pindaric mode for aesthetic and political reasons. Roman Callimacheanism's privileging of the small and elegant offers a pretext for Horace to shrink from the difficulty of writing praise poetry in the wake of civil war. But Horace by no means excludes story-telling from his enacted lyric. On the formal level, numerous odes contain narration. Together they constitute a larger narrative told over the course of Horace's two lyric collections. Horace tells the story of his development as a lyricist and of the competing aesthetic and political demands on his lyric poetry. At issue is whether he can ever truly become a poet of praise.

• Autore: Michèle Lowrie
• Editore: Oxford University Press
• Anno: 1997
• Rilegatura: Hardback
• Pagine: 396 p.
• Dimensioni: 224 x 145 mm
• Peso: 618 gr.
• EAN: 9780198150534

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