Catullan Provocations: Lyric Poetry and the Drama of Position (Classics and Contemporary Thought) (Volume 1) - Softcover

Fitzgerald, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520221567 ISBN 13: 9780520221567

Publisher: University of California Press, 2000

Synopsis

Restoring to Catullus a provocative power that familiarity has tended to dim, this book argues that Catullus challenges us to think about the nature of lyric in new ways. Fitzgerald shows how Catullus's poetry reflects the conditions of its own consumption as it explores the terms and possibilities of the poet's license. Reading the poetry in relation to the drama of position played out between poet, poem, and reader, the author produces a fresh interpretation of almost all of Catullus's oeuvre. Running through the book is an analysis of the ideological stakes behind the construction of the author Catullus in twentieth-century scholarship and of the agenda governing the interpreter's position in relation to Catullus.

About this title

About the Author

William Fitzgerald is Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at the University of California, San Diego.

Review

"Fitzgerald manages to break new ground. . . . A stimulating and thoughtful study of the poetry of Catullus."--Christopher Nappa, "The Classical Journal

Edition details

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0520221567
• ISBN 13: 9780520221567
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 324