Writing, Performance, and Authority in Augustan Rome

In Writing, Performance, and Authority in Augustan Rome Michele Lowrie examines how the Romans conceived of their poetic media. Song has links to the divine through prophecy, while writing offers a more quotisian, but also more realistic way of presenting what a poet does. In a culture of
highly polished book production where recitation was the fashion, to claim to sing or to write was one means of self-definition. Lowrie assesses the stakes of poetic claims to one medium or another. Generic definition is an important factor. Epic and lyric have traditional associations with song,
while the literacy epistle is obviously written. But issuess of poetic interpretability and power matter even more. The choice of medium contributes to the debate about the relative potency of rival discourses, specifically poetry, politics, and the law. Writing could offer an escape from the social
and political demands of the moment by shifting the focus toward the readership of posterity.

Author: Michele Lowrie
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 12/01/2009
Pages: 440
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.80lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.50w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780199545674

About the Author

Michele Lowrie is Associate Professor of Classics at New York University.

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