1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910782928203321

Autore

Fitzgerald William <1952->

Titolo

Slavery and the Roman literary imagination / / William Fitzgerald [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2000

ISBN

1-107-11893-X

1-280-42111-8

0-511-17333-4

0-511-04073-3

0-511-15239-6

0-511-32335-2

0-511-61254-0

0-511-04927-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xi, 129 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Roman literature and its contexts

Disciplina

870.9/3520625

Soggetti

Latin literature - History and criticism

Slavery in literature

Slavery - Rome - History

Enslaved persons - Rome

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-125) and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Half-title; Series-title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction: living with slaves; CHAPTER 1. The other self: proximity and symbiosis; CHAPTER 2. Punishment: license, (self-) control and fantasy; CHAPTER 3. Slaves between the free; CHAPTER 4. The continuum of (servile) relationships; CHAPTER 5. Enslavement and metamorphosis; Epilogue; Bibliography; General index; Index of passages discussed

Sommario/riassunto

This book explores the presence of slaves and slavery in Roman literature and asks particularly what the free imagination made of the experience of living with slaves, beings who both were and were not fellow humans. As a shadow humanity, slaves furnished the free with other selves and imaginative alibis as well as mediators between and



substitutes for their peers. As presences that witnessed their owners' most unguarded moments they possessed a knowledge that was the object of both curiosity and anxiety. The book discusses not only the ideological relations of Roman literature to the institution of slavery, but also the ways in which slavery provided a metaphor for a range of other relationships and experiences, and in particular for literature itself. It is arranged thematically and covers a broad chronological and generic field.