Declamation, paternity, and Roman identity
Subtitle: authority and the rhetorical self
By: Erik Gunderson.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Cambridge, U.K; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 285
Subjects: Speeches, addresses, etc., Latin -- History and criticism.; Identity (Psychology) in literature.; Group identity in literature.; Authority in literature.; Paternity in literature.; Self in literature.; Rhetoric, Ancient.; Oratory, Ancient.
Description: "This book explores the much maligned and misunderstood genre of declamation. Instead of a bastard rhetoric, declamation should be seen as a venue within which the rhetoric of the legitimate self is constructed. These fictions of the self are uncannily real, and these stagey dramas are in fact rehearsals for the serious play of Roman identity. Critics of declamation find themselves recapitulating the very logic of the genre they are refusing. When declamation is read in the light of the contemporary theory of the subject a wholly different picture emerges: this is a canny game played within and with the rhetoric of the self. This book makes broad claims for what is often seen as a narrow topic. An appendix includes a new translation and brief discussion of a sample of surviving examples of declamation."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-272) and indexes.