Is Lucan's brilliant and grotesque epic "Civil War" an example of
ideological poetry at its most flagrant, or is it a work that
despairingly proclaims the meaninglessness of ideology? Shadi
Bartsch offers a startlingly new answer to this split debate on the
Roman poet's magnum opus.
Reflecting on the disintegration of the Roman republic in the
wake of the civil war that began in 49 B.C., Lucan (writing during
the grim tyranny of Nero's Rome) recounts that fateful conflict
with a strangely ambiguous portrayal of his republican hero,
Pompey. Although the story is one of a tragic defeat, the language
of his epic is more often violent and nihilistic than heroic and
tragic. And Lucan is oddly fascinated by the graphic destruction of
lives, the violation of human bodies--an interest paralleled in his
deviant syntax and fragmented poetry. In an analysis that draws on
contemporary political thought ranging from Hannah Arendt and
Richard Rorty to the poetry of Vietnam veterans, as well as on
literary theory and ancient sources, Bartsch finds in the paradoxes
of Lucan's poetry both a political irony that responds to the
universally perceived need for, yet suspicion of, ideology, and a
recourse to the redemptive power of storytelling. This shrewd and
lively book contributes substantially to our understanding of Roman
civilization and of poetry as a means of political expression.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
