Lucan and the Sublime: Power, Representation and Aesthetic Experience

274 Pages·2013·2.97 MB·English

by  Dr Henry J. M. Day

more information - www.cambridge.org/9781107020603

LucanandtheSublime
This is the first comprehensive study of the sublime in Lucan. Drawing upon
renewedliterary-criticalinterestinthetraditionofphilosophicalaesthetics,Henry
Dayarguesthatthecategoryofthesublimeoffersameansofmovingbeyond
readingsofLucan’sBellumcivileintermsofthepoem’spoliticalcommitment
or,alternatively,nihilism.DemonstratingindialoguewiththeoristsfromBurke
andKanttoFreud,LyotardandAnkersmitthecontinuingvitalityofLonginus’
foundationaltreatiseOntheSublime,DaychartsLucan’scomplexandinstructive
explorationoftherelationshipbetweensublimityandethicaldiscoursesoffree-
domandoppression.ThroughtheBellumcivile’scataclysmicvisionofcivilwar
andmetapoeticaccountsofitsowngenesis,throughitsheatedlinguistictexture
andproclaimedeffectsuponfuturereaders,and,mostpowerfullyofall,through
itsrepresentationofitstwinprotagonistsCaesarandPompey,Lucan’sgreatepic
emergesasacentraltextinthehistoryofthesublime.
henry day has taught at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and at
Birkbeck, University of London, and has worked as a consultant on classical
subjectsfortheLondonReviewofBooksandBBCtelevision.Hewascalledto
theBarofEnglandandWalesin2011byLincoln’sInnandisnowpursuinga
careerasabarrister.
cambridge classical studies
Generaleditors
r. l. hunter,r. g. osborne,m. millett,
d. n. sedley,g. c. horrocks,s. p. oakley,
w. m. beard
LUCAN AND THE SUBLIME
Power,RepresentationandAestheticExperience
HENRY J. M. DAY
cambridge university press
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Day,HenryJ.M.,1981–
Lucanandthesublime:power,representationandaestheticexperience/HenryJ.M.Day.
p. cm.–(Cambridgeclassicalstudies)
isbn978-1-107-02060-3(hardback)
1.Lucan,39–65–Criticismandinterpretation. 2.Sublime,The,inliterature. I.Title.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements pageviii
Introduction 1
1 Theexperienceofthesublime 30
2 Presentation,thesublimeandtheBellumcivile 72
3 TheCaesariansublime 106
4 ThePompeiansublime 179
Epilogue 234
Bibliography 239
Indexlocorum 251
Indexrerumetnominum 257
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thisbookisarevisedversionofmydoctoraldissertation,under-
taken at Trinity College, Cambridge, between 2005 and 2009. I
wouldliketothankmysupervisors,WilliamFitzgeraldandEmily
Gowers, for their encouragement and for ensuring, despite my
best efforts, that the project stayed on track. To Emily I owe a
special debt for putting me up (and up with me) as I approached
mysubmissiondeadline.Iamimmenselygratefultomyexamin-
ers, Philip Hardie and Charles Martindale, for the time they took
toreadthedissertationsopainstakingly,fortheirinstructivecriti-
cismandfortheirpost-vivaadviceandguidance.Asdetailedinmy
footnotes,theirworkmarksthisbookthroughout.StephenOakley
andRichardHunterrecommendedthedissertationforpublication
in the Cambridge Classical Studies series and offered valuable
suggestions for its improvement; my thanks to them both and to
all the CCS editors. Thanks also to Michael Sharp, Jo Breeze,
Josephine Lane and Liz Hanlon at Cambridge University Press
for shepherding the manuscript through the publication process
withsuchcareandpatience,toIvetaAdams,myeagle-eyedcopy-
editor,forsavingmefromnumerouserrorsoffactandinfelicities
ofstyle,andtoSiobhanChomseforcompilingtheindexessodili-
gently and swiftly. Needless to say, all faults that remain are my
own.
ProfessorHardieandProfessorHuntergavetimeandexpertise
to help me organise and secure funding for a conference on ‘The
ClassicalSublime’atCambridgeinMarch2008.Iamindebtedto
themforensuringthesuccessoftheeventandtoallwhoattended
and contributed to discussion, especially to those who delivered
papers:PatrickCheney,AndrewLaird,CharlesMartindale,James
Porter,AlessandroSchiesaro,PhilipShawandMichaelSilk.Par-
ticular thanks are due to Professor Schiesaro for sending me a
copy of his book The Passions in Play and to Professor Cheney
viii