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21 results

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  • Introduction

  • Edited by Margot Neger, University of Cyprus, Spyridon Tzounakas, University of Cyprus
  • Book:
    Intertextuality in Pliny's <i>Epistles</i>
    Published online:
    07 September 2023
    Print publication:
    21 September 2023, pp 1-26

  • Summary

    The introduction outlines the polyphonic and interactive character of Pliny the Younger’s Epistles by first looking at how Pliny constructs time and space of literary interaction in his social environment. The chapter then moves on with a discussion of interdiscursivity and generic interaction in Pliny’s letters and a review of scholarship on intertextuality. A case study of the triptych of letters 4.26-28 demonstrates how various forms of textual and non-textual interaction are combined in Pliny’s Epistles. Whereas the centrepiece of this series, Ep. 4.27 on the recitation of Sentius Augurinus’ poetry, focuses on oral exchange and mnemonic skills, the preceding letter (4.26) foregrounds the materiality of literature by playing with the motif of books as companions (comites) on journeys. The third letter (Ep. 4.28), on the other hand, emphasizes the visibility of famous writers whose portraits were placed and looked at in libraries. In addition to staging various forms of literary interaction, the triptych of Ep. 4.26-28 also showcases the letters’ intermediality. The introduction concludes with a key to the volume’s chapters.

  • Chapter 8 - Intertextuality and Posthumous Reputation in Pliny’s Letter on the Death of Silius Italicus (Plin. Ep. 3.7)

  • from Part III - Pliny and Seneca: Discourses of Grief and Posthumous Reputation
  • Edited by Margot Neger, University of Cyprus, Spyridon Tzounakas, University of Cyprus
  • Book:
    Intertextuality in Pliny's <i>Epistles</i>
    Published online:
    07 September 2023
    Print publication:
    21 September 2023, pp 164-184

  • Summary

    In his obituary of Silius Italicus (Ep. 3.7), Pliny uses a series of apposite intertextual allusions drawn from a variety of sources (especially from Seneca’s Dialogi and Epistles, Cicero’s Epistulae ad Familiares and Hesiod) which help him denigrate Silius’ posthumous reputation. Pliny evokes several titles of Senecan works and thus virtually creates an epistolary library with a section containing Stoic best sellers. In this letter, Pliny absorbs Seneca’s Stoicism, prompts his readers to evaluate Silius’ character through the lens of Stoic discourses and to notice an inconsistency between Silius’ Stoic death and his un-Stoic way of life, while all the while associating the epic poet with Epicureanism. He has good reasons to undermine Silius’ reputation, since the latter was Pliny’s rival for the title of Cicero’s heir. However, at the same time Pliny differentiates himself from Seneca by rejecting some of his central ideas, as e.g. his idea that human life is not short. The negative insinuations against Silius are further accentuated by intratextual links with other letters addressed to Caninius Rufus.

Intertextuality in Pliny's Epistles
  • Edited by Margot Neger, Spyridon Tzounakas
  • Published online:
    07 September 2023
    Print publication:
    21 September 2023
  • Pliny's Epistles are full of literary artistry. This volume of essays by an impressive international team of scholars showcases this by exploring the intertextual, interdiscursive and also intermedial character of the collection. It provides a contribution to the recent scholarly interest in Latin prose intertextuality and in the literary and cultural interactions of the Imperial period. Focusing on the whole collection as well as on single books and selected letters, it investigates Pliny's strategies of incorporating literary models and genres into his epistolary oeuvre, thus creating a kind of 'super-genre' himself. In addition to displaying Pliny's literary techniques, the volume also serves as an advanced introduction to Latin prose poetics.

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