Stylistic theory and practice in the Younger Pliny
Stylistic theory and practice in the Younger Pliny
This thesis consists of two parts. The first entailsan examination of Pliny's literary theories with regard to those genres with which he was centrally or marginally concerned: oratory, historiography, poetry (mostly epigrammatic), epistolography. The second part consists of a stylistic analysis d the whole Plinian corpus (books 1-9, book 10, Panegyricus) carried out using the stylistic criteria of ancient rhetoric. The rhetorical analysis will extend ovar five chapters corresponding to the constituent parts of the Plinian corpus (the letters of books 1-9 will be analysed in three groups according to the classification established in chapter 4). In each chapter the rhetorical section will be followed by a list of the major tropes: metonymies, synecdoches, metaphors, and similes; lexical comments will here integrate the material on rhetoric. The central arguments of the thesis will be that Pliny, through traditional allegiance to negotium, considered oratory as the genre which must necessarily demand most attention, and that (being relatively uninterested in historiography) he did not hope to achieve fame through his letters and poems. The aim of the stylistic analysis will be to show the importance of rhetorical ornamentation, accompanied by relative lack of imagery, in most letters at a time when literature was struggling to find suitably elevated themes on which to exercise itself. The letters of type III, however, which will be identified as the most literary (as probably originating in the excursuses of oratory), and which number among them some of Pliny's most popular pieces, are conversely remarkable by their lack of rhetorical ornamentation and abundance of tropes. The practical letters of book 10 will be shown to lack both kinds of ornamentation, which are employed with abundance, as befitting an epideictic speech, in the Panegyricus.
University of Southampton
1982
Gamberini, Federico
(1982)
Stylistic theory and practice in the Younger Pliny.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
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Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
This thesis consists of two parts. The first entailsan examination of Pliny's literary theories with regard to those genres with which he was centrally or marginally concerned: oratory, historiography, poetry (mostly epigrammatic), epistolography. The second part consists of a stylistic analysis d the whole Plinian corpus (books 1-9, book 10, Panegyricus) carried out using the stylistic criteria of ancient rhetoric. The rhetorical analysis will extend ovar five chapters corresponding to the constituent parts of the Plinian corpus (the letters of books 1-9 will be analysed in three groups according to the classification established in chapter 4). In each chapter the rhetorical section will be followed by a list of the major tropes: metonymies, synecdoches, metaphors, and similes; lexical comments will here integrate the material on rhetoric. The central arguments of the thesis will be that Pliny, through traditional allegiance to negotium, considered oratory as the genre which must necessarily demand most attention, and that (being relatively uninterested in historiography) he did not hope to achieve fame through his letters and poems. The aim of the stylistic analysis will be to show the importance of rhetorical ornamentation, accompanied by relative lack of imagery, in most letters at a time when literature was struggling to find suitably elevated themes on which to exercise itself. The letters of type III, however, which will be identified as the most literary (as probably originating in the excursuses of oratory), and which number among them some of Pliny's most popular pieces, are conversely remarkable by their lack of rhetorical ornamentation and abundance of tropes. The practical letters of book 10 will be shown to lack both kinds of ornamentation, which are employed with abundance, as befitting an epideictic speech, in the Panegyricus.
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Published date: 1982
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Local EPrints ID: 460332
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/460332
PURE UUID: 53b862a6-b929-4f57-a21b-0f63a1f1ca6e
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 18:18
Last modified: 04 Jul 2022 18:18
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Author:
Federico Gamberini
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