Quoting, editing, rewriting: reception and representation of fragmentary Latin poetry
Citer, éditer, réécrire : réception et représentation de la poésie latine fragmentaire
Published on Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Abstract
The way in which our access to fully extant texts is mediated by subsequent reception is now well established. In the case of fragmentary works of Latin poetry, this mediation is even more direct and material: because we depend on secondary transmission for our access, the corpus of early Roman poetry is composed exclusively of the elements that ensured its reception (quotation, testimonia, etc.). It is often the case that studies of the reception of fragmentary authors tell us more about the later receiving authors and their aims than about the earlier authors and works to which they refer. This symposium is therefore less concerned with the content of Latin fragmentary poetry than with its literary and editorial development.
Announcement
International Symposium
Grenoble Alpes University 4-6/12/2024
Organization : Sarah Gaucher (Université Grenoble Alpes)
Argument
The way in which our access to fully extant texts is mediated by subsequent reception is now well established. In the case of fragmentary works of Latin poetry, this mediation is even more direct and material: because we depend on secondary transmission for our access, the corpus of early Roman poetry is composed exclusively of the elements that ensured its reception (quotation, testimonia, etc.). The creation of Roman "literature" therefore appears to be primarily an act of reception, carried out by Roman society, mainly the elite, over the course of Rome's history (GOLDBERG 2005). The long established practice of obscuring this important fact (mainly in fragment editions) is now being replaced by the recognition that the study of early Roman poetry, like other fragmentary works, is essentially a study of reception: what we are able to study are the filters through which this poetry passed, and it is only through these indirect means that we can legitimately speak of fragmentary works. Thus, as Jackie Elliott points out, "The study of now fragmentary works is in this sense akin to the study of black holes: the objects of our interest are not themselves manifest, and what remains to be observed are their effects on surrounding phenomena" (ELLIOTT 2022: 84).
It is often the case that studies of the reception of fragmentary authors tell us more about the later receiving authors and their aims than about the earlier authors and works to which they refer. And yet, when it comes to the reception of early Roman poets, there are a variety of arguments that can tell us something about fragmentary literature in the first place. In particular, they can focus on operations of selection and citation of the source text, ranging from the microscopic (the citation of a single line by an earlier poet in the text of a later author) to the macroscopic (rewritings or responses to entire works or figures of poets). But we can also look at the way in which editorial procedures have helped to shape the reading and reception of fragmentary authors and works over the centuries (the order of fragments, the presentation of fragmentary material, the editor's discourse in the paratextual space, etc.), and at the way in which modern writings, particularly neo-Latin ones, have been able to seize on ancient representations in order to depict or rewrite fragmentary authors and/or works.
This symposium is therefore less concerned with the content of Latin fragmentary poetry than with its literary and editorial development. At the crossroads of the research carried out within the FragmAnt project, which focuses on the reception of Latin fragmentary poetry and the digital treatment of quotation, and the Translatio research centre, which is interested in the transmission, translation and reception of ancient and medieval texts and the cultural transfers in which they are embedded, this symposium proposes to reflect on, but not limit itself to, the following themes:
- Citation and transmission of fragments: what selection processes were used to transmit fragments of Latin poetry? In what ways (quotation, paraphrase, rewriting, reference, etc.) and for what purposes (ornament, model, instrument of proof, etc.) were the fragments transmitted? What representations of the fragmentary Latin poets did these operations and methods help to forge?
- Publishing and representation: how did the various editions of fragmentary poetry help to shape the reading and reception of the fragmentary poets and/or their works?
- Reminiscences and rewritings: how did later poets (Latin or Neo-Latin) take up the legacy left by their now fragmentary predecessors, whether in the form of reminiscences or rewritings? Above all, how do these rewritings inform us about the reception and representation of the Latin fragmentary poets?
Submission guidelines
Proposals for papers, not exceeding 500 words, should be sent to sarah.gaucher@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr
by 31/05/2024.
The conference organisation will cover hotel accommodation, meals and, for young researchers, all or part of their travel costs.
Scientific committee
- Florian Barrière (Professor, UGA)
- Sarah Gaucher (Postdoctoral fellow, UGA)
- Sarah Orsini (Associate Professor, UGA)
- Clémence Pelletier (ATER, UGA)
Indicative bibliography
- Biggs, Thomas. 2020. Poetics of the First Punic War. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
- Čulík-Baird, Hannah. 2022. Cicero and the Early Latin Poets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Elliott, Jackie. 2022. Early Latin Poetry. Leiden: Brill.
- Goldberg, Sander. 2005. Constructing Literature in the Roman Republic. Poetry and its Reception. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Manuwald, Gesine. 2011. Roman Republican Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Martindale, Charles. 1993. Redeeming the Text: Latin Poetry and the Hermeneutics of Reception. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Martindale, Charles and Richard Thomas, eds. 2006. Classics and the Uses of Reception. Classical Receptions. Oxford: Blackwell.
- Suerbaum, Werner, ed. 2002. Handbuch der Lateinischen Literatur der Antike. Erster Band. Die archaische Literatur: von den Anfängen bis Sullas Tod. Die vorliterarische Periode und die Zeit von 240 bis 78 v. Chr. Munich: Beck (Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft 8.1).
Subjects
- Prehistory and Antiquity (Main category)
- Mind and language > Representation > Cultural history
- Mind and language > Language > Literature
- Mind and language > Representation > Heritage
- Periods > Prehistory and Antiquity > Roman history
- Mind and language > Representation > Cultural identities
- Mind and language > Representation
- Mind and language > Epistemology and methodology > Methods of processing and representation
Places
- Université Grenoble Alpes
Grenoble, France (38)
Event attendance modalities
Hybrid event (on site and online)
Date(s)
- Friday, May 31, 2024
Keywords
- quoting,editing,rewriting,representation,reception,fragment,latin
Reference Urls
Information source
- Sarah Gaucher
courriel : sarah [dot] gaucher [at] univ-grenoble-alpes [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Quoting, editing, rewriting: reception and representation of fragmentary Latin poetry », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, https://doi.org/10.58079/w9lo
