Introduction: Notes towards a poetics of late antique literature

Book

The introduction to this volume addresses three main issues. First, it provides a critical reassessment of the discipline of late antique studies, going back to its very foundations and revealing its historical, cultural, and political biases. Secondly, through presentation and discussion of the aesthetic/poetic paradigm of late antique literature and art proposed by the editors, it sets forth the conceptual frame underlying the whole volume. To this end, notions like metaliterary twist, hybridization, poetics of the uncommon, culture of spolia, appropriationism, era of interpretation, cumulative aesthetics, poetics of the fragment/detail, and the like, are briefly explained and discussed with the aid of a number of representative examples. Last but not least, it explores the intriguing topicality of late antique culture in its problematic relationship to the postmodern world. As is customary, the introduction also presents and justifies the volume’s aim and structure and the topics discussed by the contributors.

Authors: Elsner, J; Lobato, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Host title: The Poetics of Late Latin Literature
• Journal: Poetics of Late Latin Literature
• Pages: 1-22
• Series: Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity
• Publication date: 2017-02-01
• DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199355631.001.0001
• ISBN-10: 0199355630
• ISBN-13: 9780199355631
• Keywords: SBTMR; Latin poetry