A major reinterpretation of Horace's famous literary manual For two
millennia, the Ars Poetica (Art of Poetry), the 476-line literary
treatise in verse with which Horace closed his career, has served as a
paradigmatic manual for writers. Rarely has it been considered as a
poem in its own right, or else it has been disparaged as a great
poet's baffling outlier. Here, Jennifer Ferriss-Hill for the first
time fully reintegrates the Ars Poetica into Horace's oeuvre, reading
the poem as a coherent, complete, and exceptional literary artifact
intimately linked with the larger themes pervading his work. Arguing
that the poem can be interpreted as a manual on how to live
masquerading as a handbook on poetry, Ferriss-Hill traces its key
themes to show that they extend beyond poetry to encompass friendship,
laughter, intergenerational relationships, and human endeavor. If the
poem is read for how it expresses itself, moreover, it emerges as an
exemplum of art in which judicious repetitions of words and ideas join
disparate parts into a seamless whole that nevertheless lends itself
to being remade upon every reading. Establishing the Ars Poetica as a
logical evolution of Horace's work, this book promises to inspire a
long overdue reconsideration of a hugely influential yet misunderstood
poem.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780691197432
Publisert
2019
Utgiver
Vendor
Princeton University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter