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VERGIL TALKS TECHNIQUE: METAPOETIC ARBORICULTURE IN GEORGICS 2.
- Source :
- Vergilius; 2014, Vol. 60, p33-66, 34p
- Publication Year :
- 2014
-
Abstract
- Vergil's discussion of tree cultivation in Georgics 2 can be read metapoetically as a literary critical treatise on genre, imitation, and allusion. In Eclogue 10 and Georgics 2, Vergil develops a technique I call metapoetic allegory, in which he literalizes the metaphorical terms of literary criticism, including everyday words that his contemporaries considered to be metaphorically derived, like liber ("book" < liber "bark"). Thus he highlights the analogy between tree cultivation and poetic composition: like trees, poems are harmed by predecessors' shadows, but flourish through generic transplanting and intertextual grafting. Read in this way, Vergil's texts imply a polemical vision of literary history as progress, not decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- ARBORICULTURE
ALLEGORY
ALLUSIONS
IMITATION in literature
LITERARY criticism
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 05067294
- Volume :
- 60
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Vergilius
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 102277097