Generic Enrichment in Vergil and Horace Review

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(More customer reviews)Harrison here addresses what he terms generic enrichment by exploring the works of two Augustan poets, Vergil and Horace. There is ample discussion here of the complexity and diversity of literary forms and textures absorbed in the Eclogues, Sermones, Epodes, Georgics, Odes and Aeneid. The argument hangs primarily on intertextual literary analysis and the chronology of publishing biographical dates rather than on historical contextualization. I am far more impressed by the author's ability to draw insights and influence from the suggestive fragmentary remains of authors such as Parthenius, Nicander, Pacuvius and Gallus than by his ability to provide a satisfying explanation for the flourishing of generic forms in Augustan Rome. Interesting times do not account completely for interesting forms. Far more likely a cause to me seems to be that given by Peter White elsewhere (in Galinsky's collection of essays on the Augustan Age): the stability of Augustan peace provided for the opportunity at a poetic career and the longevity with which learned poets such as Vergil and Horace could experiment in response to their forebearers. However, the groundwork that Harrison provides for his discussion of genre, based in part on a "host" form and "guest" material, is clear and his readings of individual poems (e. g., the section on tragedy in the Aeneid surpasses many) strike me as compelling and well considered.

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S. J. Harrison sets out to sketch one answer to a key question in Latin literary history: why did the period c.39-19 BC in Rome produce such a rich range of complex poetical texts, above all in the work of the famous poets Vergil and Horace? Harrison argues that one central aspect of this literary flourishing was the way in which different poetic genres or kinds (pastoral, epic, tragedy, etc.) interacted with each other and that that interaction itself was a prominent literary subject. He explores this issue closely through detailed analysis of passages of the two poets' works between these dates. Harrison opens with an outline of generic theory ancient and modern as a basis for his argument, suggesting how different poetic genres and their partial presence in each other can be detected in the Latin poetry of the first century BC.

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