My dear Tim, It depends on which rhetorical school you follow, doesn't it? What is a genre? When we use that term, what do we mean by it? Are "Epic" and "panegyric" really mutually exclusive terms in the way we talk about ancient literature? Who laid down that law? Is it really helpful to talk of an ancient poem as belonging to genre A rather than to genre B? That is the kind of categorisation that I have always regarded as reductionist. If instead of using the word "panegyric" I had said "poem written in support and praise of" would you have found that formulation more acceptable?
Which classification, ancient or modern, defines "panegyric" as a lesser or reduced genre compared with whatever it is that Vergil announces his poem to be in its opening lines? And what DOES Vergil announce his poem to be in its opening lines? Is that more explicit than what Vergil had said in the Georgics that the Aeneid would be? OH! I had forgotten. Vergil changed his mind of course, and then he forgot to change the Georgics, and then he went and died before he burned his magnum opus. Did I say that time has no effect on the way the Aeneid is read? Is that what transcend means? I didn't think so, but am happy to stand corrected. The problem about email is that it induces action rather than reflection. I think I shall give it up. > From: "Mallon, Tim" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "'[EMAIL PROTECTED]'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: VIRGIL: RE: Panegyric, was: a question on book iv > Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 11:32:47 -0700 > Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > From: Yvan Nadeau [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > if your friend meant that the Aeneid was primarily written as a > panegyric of Augustus, he was right. Which is not to say that > it > does not transcend time etc. Which is not to say that it has > nothing > to do with justice, duty, virtue, etc. etc. What is it that > you > find troublesome about Book four? > > Yours, > > yn > > > I thought that panegyric was an identifiable genre in antiquity, not > identical to epic. > > Surely the Aeneid is what its author announces it to be in the opening > lines. What is the point of a reductive reading - trying to understand a > text by reducing it to a genre of lesser value? > > As for transcending time - literature survives, does not "transcend" it. > What sort of condition has the Aeneid reached that time has no effect on > how it is read (that is how it survives, other than as text)? > > Tim > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > ------------------------------- > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. > Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message > "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You > can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub > Yvan Nadeau [EMAIL PROTECTED] 0131-650-3575 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
