Hidden Author - An Interpretation of Petronius''s Satyricon

Petronius's Satyricon is famous today primarily for the amazing banquet tale, "Trimalchio's Feast", also celebrated in Fellini's film, Satyricon. But this episode is only one part of the larger picture offered by the work. In The Hidden Author, Professor Conte starts with the structure of the work as a whole, inviting the reader to appreciate the elements of irony and fantasy woven into the text. The author has hidden himself with the aim of striking at the vanity of the contemporary cultured scene, handing over his stage to his characters, who are living in various sorts of degradation, but who see themselves, in minds overactively appropriating a great literary heritage, as figures of mythic proportions. In the foreground of Petronius's work can be seen the follies and excesses of the Rome of Nero's time; in the background, the outlines of the intellectual life of the early Empire.

Über den Autor / die Autorin

Gian Biagio Conte is Professor of Latin Literature in the Department of Classical Philology at the University of Pisa, Italy, and is author of, among many works, Latin Literature: A History (1994).

Zusammenfassung

"The Satyricon of Petronius", a comic novel written in the first century AD, is famous primarily for its amazing banquet tale, "Trimalchio's Feast." In this discussion of Petronius' masterful use of parody, the author offers an interpretation of the "Satyricon" as a whole.

Produktdetails

• Autoren: Gian Biagio Conte, Gian Biagio Conte
• Verlag: University Of California Press
• Sprache: Englisch
• Produktform: Fester Einband
• Erschienen: 15.03.1997
• EAN: 9780520207158
• ISBN: 978-0-520-20715-8
• Seiten: 224
• Serien: Sather Classical Lectures; Sather Classical Lectures
• Themen: Geisteswissenschaften, Kunst, Musik > Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft > Englische Sprachwissenschaft / Literaturwissenschaft; Latin, LITERARY CRITICISM / Drama, LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Ancient Rome, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Literary studies: plays & playwrights, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, Literary studies: plays and playwrights, LITERARY CRITICISM / Novel as Form