Sublime Seneca - Ethics, Literature, Metaphysics

Erik Gunderson reads Seneca's philosophy and tragedy together, exploring the possibility of enlightenment and the human capacity for wisdom and knowledge.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. Misreading Seneca; 2. Writing metaphysics; 3. The nature of Seneca; 4. The spectacle of ethics; 5. Losing Seneca; 6. The analytics of desire; 7. The last monster; Conclusion: the metaphysics of Senecan morals.

About the author

Erik Gunderson is Professor of Classics at the University of Toronto. He is the author of four other scholarly monographs: Laughing Awry: Plautus and Tragicomedy (2014); Nox Philologiae: Aulus Gellius and the Fantasy of the Ancient Library (2009); Declamation, Paternity and Roman Identity: Authority and the Rhetorical Self (2003); and Staging Masculinity: The Rhetoric of Performance in the Roman World (2000). He is also the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rhetoric (2009). His work spans languages, genres and eras, and he consistently brings to bear modern critical perspectives when exploring the ancient world.

Summary

A reading of Seneca's philosophy and tragedy together, exploring the possibility of enlightenment and the human capacity for wisdom and knowledge. It offers readings of a broad swathe of his works, producing an account of Seneca's vision of both philosophy and literature, and the need to fuse the two.

Product details

• Authors: Erik Gunderson, Erik (University of Toronto) Gunderson, Gunderson Erik
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 26.01.2015
• EAN: 9781107090019
• ISBN: 978-1-107-09001-9
• No. of pages: 238
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; Latin, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Ancient & Classical, Ethics & moral philosophy, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Ancient Rome, Ancient History, Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500, BCE to c 500 CE, BCE period – Protohistory, Literary studies: plays and playwrights