Latin Love Poetry

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Description

I hate and I love.' The Roman poet Catullus expressed the disorienting experience of being in love in a stark contradiction that has resonated across the centuries. While his description might seem to modern readers natural and spontaneous, it is actually a response planned with great care and artistry. It is that artistry, and the way in which Roman love poetry works, that this book explores. Focusing on Catullus and on the later genre of elegy - so-called for its metre, and a form of poetry practiced by Tibullus, Propertius and Ovid - Denise Eileen McCoskey and Zara Martirosova Torlone discuss the devices used by the major Roman love poets, as well as the literary and historical contexts that helped shape their work. Setting poets and their writings especially against the turbulent backdrop of the Augustan Age (31 BCE-14 CE), the book examines the origins of Latin elegy; highlights the poets' key themes; and traces their reception by later writers and readers.

Reviews

'This insightful new introduction to the study of Roman love poetry offers a highly engaging and detailed primer, guiding students through the complexities and pleasures of reading and responding to Latin love elegy. Focusing primarily upon the Augustan elegists, but taking in the influences of Catullus, Gallus and Sulpicia along the way, Latin Love Poetry presents an accessible and articulate roadmap for all undergraduates looking to find their way towards a better understanding of this fascinating body of work.' Genevieve Liveley, Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of Bristol, author of Ovid: Love Songs and Ovid's 'Metamorphoses': A Reader's Guide 'Latin Love Poetry offers a clearly written and comprehensive synthesis of the most important scholarship on Latin erotic elegy from the last thirty years. A worthy successor to Lyne's The Latin Love Poets (1981), it will be this generation's vade mecum for all those entering the field.' Paul Allen Miller, Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature, University of South Carolina, author of Latin Erotic Elegy: An Anthology and Critical Reader and Subjecting Verses: Latin Love Elegy

Author Bio

Denise Eileen McCoskey is Associate Professor of Classics and Black World Studies at Miami University (Ohio). Zara Martirosova Torlone is Associate Professor of Classics at Miami University (Ohio)