Pliny the Younger and the Construction of Culture

William A. Johnson

Winter 2005

1. Tools and Logistics

A. A select bibliography to the Younger Pliny, topically arranged: see classics.uc.edu/~johnson/pliny/

• This evolving bibliography will be a fundamental and shared resource, to which we should all make frequent contribution
• A preliminary bibliography is already loaded (distributed as a handout 1/3/05)

B. Image collections, topically arranged: see classics.uc.edu/~johnson/pliny/

• This will be a shared repository for images important to the class
• The collection will be particularly important for the second part of the course (on villas)

C. Books to hand

• R. A. B. Mynors. C. Plini Caecili Secundi epistularum libri decem. Oxford, 1963.
• Betty Radice. The Letters of the Younger Pliny. Penguin, 1976.

D. Acroamata, libelli sim.

• Minor reports on bibliography and the like
• An oral report (20 min.) preparatory to your paper. Weeks 4-6. Examples would be the close reading of a letter or set of letters of especial interest, or foundational investigation of broader context. Sample topics for the latter:
• Statius, landscapes and epistles
• Tacitus, Dialogus: the uses of "letters"
• Cicero: real vs artful epistles (catalogue some specifics, e.g. openings)
• Martial: varietas in poetry and prose
• Private vs public in Roman architecture
• "Unknown" Latin literature from the imperial age
• An abstract on your paper topic, due at the end of Week 6 (February 11)
• An oral report (20 min.) on your seminar paper, presented as a conference paper (last week of classes)
• Seminar paper (ca. 20 pages), due Wednesday, March 16
• Weekly, brief, take-home quizzes to practice translation from the Latin

2. Weekly outline & schedule

1. Introduction: the nature of Pliny’s epistolography; some problems of interpretation

• Pl. Ep. *1.1, *3.1

• See further in the bibliography, under Literary Definition and Genre

Part I. Pliny and Literary Conceptions of Culture

2. What constituted "reading" in antiquity? Studia and the literary conception of culture

• Pl., Ep. 1.10, 1.16, 2.3, *3.5, *4.16, 4.27, *5.19, *8.1, *8.21, *9.34, *9.36

• Books 1-2 in translation

• A. K. Gavrilov, "Reading Techniques in Classical Antiquity," CQ 47 (1997)
56-73 + M. Burnyeat, "Postscript on Silent Reading," CQ 47 (1997) 74-76.

Some further (optional) reading on ancient reading

Josef Balog, "Voces Paginarum: Beträge zur Geschichte des lauten Lesens und Schreibens," Philologus 82 (1927) 85-109, 202-240. (The original version of this article had already been published in Hungarian in 1921. The most important pieces of evidence were collected in the "Nachträge" to E. Norden’s influential Die antike Kunstprosa I³ [Leipzig & Berlin, 1915].)

B. M. W. Knox, "Silent Reading in Antiquity, " GRBS 9 (1968) 421-435. Particularly useful and entertaining.

G. L. Hendrickson, "Ancient Reading," CJ 25 (1929) 192-196.

Raymond Starr, "Lectores and Book Reading," CJ 86 (1990-91) 337-343.

Johnson, William A. 2000. "Toward a Sociology of Reading in Classical Antiquity." AJPh 121: 593-627.

Paul Saenger, Space between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading (Stanford, 1997), especiallly the introductory chapter. (Expands and supersedes his article, "Silent Reading: its Impact on late Medieval Script and Literacy" in Viator 13 [1982] 367-414.)

Excellent general studies, but further afield (i.e., not concentrating on antiquity):

Olson, David R. 1994. The World on Paper. The Conceptual and Cognitive Implications of Reading and Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Petrucci, Armando. 1995. Writers and Readers in Medieval Italy. Ed. and trans. Charles M. Radding. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Street, Brian V., ed. 1993. Cross-cultural approaches to literacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

General introduction to ancient books, with a useful annotated bibliography:

Turner E. G., rev. P. J. Parsons. 1987. Greek Manuscripts of the Ancient World. 2nd edition. BICS Supplement 46. London.

3. What is Public: the literary society and performance

• Pl., Ep. 1.13, *3.18, *5.3, 5.17, 6.15, *6.17, *7.4, *7.17, 8.12, *9.27

• Books 3-4 in translation

• Fantham 1996 (Roman Literary Culture), chap. 6 "Literature and the Governing Classes," pp. 183-221, with part. attention to pp. 211ff. ("The World of the Auditorium")

Further reading on literary and other performance:

Tacitus, Dialogus. A central primary source for the performance environment, and attitudes towards this.

Juvenal, Seventh Satire. Another central text. This is a good opportunity to become familiar with both of these works, if you're not already.

Bartsch, Shadi. 1994. Actors in the audience : theatricality and doublespeak from Nero to Hadrian. Harvard. Fundamental to its topic. I have this book checked out, but am glad to loan.

Cavallo, G. al. 1989-91. Lo spazio letterario di Roma antica. Rome. The first three volumes of this enormous collection are on I. production, II. circulation, and III. reception of texts.

Colton, R. E. 1966. "Juvenal on recitations." CB 42: 81-85.

Friedländer, L. 1908-13. Roman Life and Manners under the Early Empire. 3 vols. Trans. J. H. Freese, al. New York. See esp. sections on theater and music in vol. 2 and belles-lettres in vol. 3. Old, but remains a fundamental collection of primary evidence.

Funaioli, G.1914. "Recitationes." In RE s.v.

Krasser, Helmut. 1999. "Lesekultur als Voraussetzung für die Rezeption von Geschichtsschreibung in der Hohen Kaiserzeit." In Geschictsschreibung und politischer Wandel im 3. Jh. n. Chr. Ed. Martin Zimmermann. Stuttgart.

Parker, Holt N. 1999. "The Observed of all observers: Spectacle, Applause, and Cultural Poetics in the Roman Theater Audience." In The Art of Ancient Spectacle. Edd. B. Bergmann and C. Kondoleon. [=Studies in the History of Art 56.] Yale.163-179. Focuses on popular rather than elite performances, but very interesting in suggesting strategies of interpretation.

4: Private and Public: literary circles and the nature of publication

• Pl. Ep. *1.2, *1.6, *1.15, *2.10, 4.3, *4.14, *4.19, 5.8, *6.21, *7.9, 7.20, 8.4, *9.8, *9.17

• Books 5-6 in translation

• Starr 1987.

For further reading see above under 3; but also:

Horsfall, N. 1989. "The Uses of Literacy and the Cena Trimalchionis." G&R 36: 74-89 & 194-209.

Jones, C. P. 1991. "Dinner Theater." In Dining in a Classical Context. Ed. William J. Slater. Ann Arbor.

Starr, Raymond. 1990-91. "Lectores and Book Reading," CJ 86: 337-343.

White, Peter. 1978. "Amicitia and the Profession of Poetry at Rome." JRS 68 (1978): 74-92.

White, Peter. 1993. Promised Verse: Poets in the Society of Augustan Rome. Harvard. Fundamental for the sociocultural side of Augustan poetry, and useful both as background and as a strategy of interpretation.

5. Self-consciousness and self-representation in the literary culture

• Pl., Ep. 2.14, *3.7, *3.16, *3.21, 4.2, 4.7, 5.5, 8.9, *9.14, *9.23, 9.29

• Leach 1990 + Riggsby 1998

• Books 7-9 in translation

For futher reading, look in the bibliography under Pliny, Presentation, and Self Presentation

Part II. Pliny and Spatial Conceptions of Culture

6. Representations and conceptions of space. Introduction to the nature of the problem

• Pl., Ep. *1.3, *1.9, 1.17, 2.8, *3.6, *4.6, 4.23, *4.28, *5.18, 8.15, *9.7

• Laurence 1997, Chap. 1 "Space and Text"

• Abstract Due by Week’s End

For futher reading, look in the bibliography under Villas & Landscape: The Negotiation of Space

7. Pliny’s villas: Public and private in domestic space

• On the Tuscan villa: Pl., Ep. *5.6, review *9.36 (already read), *9.15; also 8.8

For futher reading, look in the bibliography under Villas & Landscape: The Negotiation of Space

8. Landscape, architecture, and ekphrasis: the boundaries between reality and art in elite self-consciousness

• On the Laurentine villa: Pl., Ep. *2.17, 9.40; also *6.31

For futher reading, look in the bibliography under Villas & Landscape: The Negotiation of Space

9. Pliny's villas, ctd.

For futher reading, look in the bibliography under Villas & Landscape: The Negotiation of Space

10. Pliny Conference