Latin Literature from Seneca to Juvenal: A Critical Study

by G. O. Hutchinson

Overview

This book explores central aspects of a key period in Latin literature. The study is unusual in embracing both poetry and prose, and in offering close literary discussion of a large number of particular passages. It is not a history, but a selective and comparative study—throwing fresh light on the period as a whole, on individual authors, and on differences and affinities between genres. Most space is given to epic and tragedy, and to the prose of Seneca and Tacitus; but Juvenal, Martial, the Younger Pliny, and other authors are also treated. The book also considers large features of genre and relates these to fundamental elements of style and to the treatment of some vital themes. It aims to give the reader a feeling for this brilliant and extraordinary writing, and a sense of the excitement and fascination of the literary period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198146902
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/19/1993
Pages:	382
Product dimensions:	5.63(w) x 8.75(h) x 1.16(d)

About the Author

Exeter College, Oxford

Table of Contents

	Abbreviations	xi
	Authors And Emperors	xiii
	Introduction	1
1.	Conceptions of Genre: Criticism in Prose, 'Lower' Poetry	4
2.	Genre and Philosophy, History, and High Poetry	40
3.	Wit	77
4.	Extravagance	111
5.	Structure and Cohesion	145
6.	The Gods in Mythological Poetry	184
7.	The Gods in Prose and in Lucan	222
8.	Death in Prose	256
9.	Death in High Poetry	288
	Bibliography	327
	Indexes
I.	Index Of Passages Discussed	351
II.	General Index	357

Editorial Reviews

"Should give further impetus to the rehabilitation of this unjustly neglected field of Latin literature."—Choice

From the Publisher