Declamation, Paternity, and Roman Identity: Authority and the Rhetorical Self

Description

This book explores the much maligned and misunderstood genre of declamation. Instead of a bastard rhetoric, declamation should be seen as a venue within which the rhetoric of the legitimate self is constructed. These fictions of the self are uncannily real, and these stagey dramas are in fact rehearsals for the serious play of Roman identity. Critics of declamation find themselves recapitulating the very logic of the genre they are refusing. When declamation is read in the light of the contemporary theory of the subject a wholly different picture emerges: this is a canny game played with and within the rhetoric of the self. This book makes broad claims for what is often seen as a narrow topic. An appendix includes a fresh translation and brief discussion of a sample of surviving examples of declamation.

Erik Gunderson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Greek and Latin at the Ohio State University. He is the author of Staging Masculinity: The Rhetoric of Performance in the Roman World (2000; ISBN 0472111396).

'Erik Gunderson makes an eloquent case for taking declamation seriously, while letting us continue to wonder at the strangeness of this dark corner of Latin literature.' Times Literary Supplement 'Gunderson has done Latin declamation and Rome culture historians a great service with this book'. Scholia Reviews 'This book suits its subject well. Gunderson's treatment will surely stimulate debate'. Anthony Corbeill, University of Kansas