Playing with Anachronism? On Contemporary Oratory
Abstrak
Abstract Chapter 4 analyses Quintilian’s polemic against what he presents as contemporary stylistic corruption, and his reception of Seneca the Younger. First, it discusses how Quintilian consistently pitches his conception of good style against the two currents of ‘archaism’ and ‘modernism’, presenting the latter as more widespread and threatening to his educational project. This chapter contends that he borrows the vocabulary of effeminacy from Seneca to describe modernism and that his stylistic polemic is a prominent case of apotreptic exemplarity, a didactic strategy he recommends to teachers. Second, it argues that Quintilian presents Seneca as a bad stylist, teacher, and literary critic and as a fountainhead of modernism, and that he links him to Nero and his matricide. By linking modernism to Seneca, this chapter suggests, Quintilian presents this contemporary current of stylistic corruption as an anachronistic remnant of the Neronian past, which must be obliterated by his ‘Flavian’ educational project.
Penulis (1)
Laura Loporcaro
Akses Cepat
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Cek di sumber asli →- Tahun Terbit
- 2025
- Bahasa
- en
- Sumber Database
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- DOI
- 10.1093/9780198911531.003.0005
- Akses
- Terbatas