Essays in Virgilian intertextuality: Text, culture, context

The project of this dissertation is to provide a more holistic model of intertextuality than those current in studies of Latin literature. The introductory chapter pinpoints three shortcomings of modern research. First, a restrictive focus on the role of poetic intertexts results in the neglect of prose sources, subliterary documents, and even material remains. Second, critics largely overlook the cultural implications of intertextuality. Third, the definition of what constitutes an intertext remains excessively circumscribed. Using the Virgilian corpus as a case-study the essays presented here aim to address these methodological gaps.;The analysis of the proem to the Third Georgic in Chapter Two notes that critics traditionally have sought models for this passage in the works of Virgil's poetic predecessors. Yet discussion reveals that closer parallels are to be found in prose and epigraphical texts and cultural practices of the late Republic. This situating of the proem more directly within its contemporary context exposes the passage as a site of intracultural contestation over contributions to the respublica.;Chapter Three argues that viewing friendship in the Aeneid, particularly that between Nisus and Euryalus, within the context of the depictions of heroic dyads common in other societies provides key insight into how Virgil's modifications represent a response to shifting cultural paradigms. Comparison with prose texts reveals that the specific changes Virgil makes can be traced to contemporary concerns.;The final essay begins with an analysis of the status of memory in the first century. Discussion of the texts of Cicero, Livy, Sallust and others reveals that during this turbulent period many Romans felt extreme unease over the functioning of memory in the respublica. Turning to the Bucolics, I argue that Virgil's presentation of memory in the collection is in many ways intertextual with its appearance elsewhere in Roman culture. Interpretation through such a framework not only helps to explain the often problematic nature of memory in the pastoral world, but also further demonstrates the embeddedness of the poetry-book within the contemporary cultural environment.