Reading Roman Pride (Emotions of the Past)

by: Yelena Baraz (Author)

Publisher: OXFORD UNIV PR

Publication Date: 6 Nov. 2020

Language: English

Print Length: 340 pages

ISBN-10: 0197531598

ISBN-13: 9780197531594

Book Description

Pride is pervasive in Roman texts, as an emotion and a political and social concept implicated in ideas of power. This study examines Roman discourse of pride from two distinct complementary perspectives. The first is based on scripts, mini-stories told to illustrate what pride is, how it arises and develops, and where it fits within the Roman emotional landscape. The second is semantic, and draws attention to differences between terms within the pride field. The peculiar feature of Roman pride that emerges is that it appears exclusively as a negative emotion, attributed exteally and condemned, up to the Augustan period. This previously unnoticed lack of expression of positive pride in republican discourse is a result of the way the Roman republican elite articulates its values as anti-monarchical and is committed, within the goveing class, to power-sharing and a kind of equality. The book explores this uniquely Roman articulation of pride attributed to people, places, and institutions and traces the partial rehabilitation of pride that begins in the texts of the Augustan poets at the time of great political change. Reading for pride produces innovative readings of texts that range from Plautus to Ausonius, with major focus on Cicero, Livy, Vergil, and other Augustan poets.
Review This is a well-structured monograph. As Baraz is the perfect guide through her book, the reader cannot miss her central messages. ― Angela Ganter, Redaktion sehepunkteThis is a sophisticated analysis of the highest order and arguably constitutes the most original and articulate contemporary explication of an ancient Roman emotional condition fraught with various historical, literary, and semantic complexities…. Essential. ― CHOICEThe skeleton of the study is lexical, centred on four terms which denote (excessive) pride (arrogantia, fastus, insolentia, and superbia), and scrupulously constructed…. But the superstructure is a rich and elegant weave, as supple close readings are put to the service of a broad argument about Roman attitudes towards pride, and reasons for them. ― Greece & Rome
About the Author
Yelena Baraz is Kennedy Foundation Professor of Latin Language and Literature, Professor of Classics, and Acting Director, for the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts at Princeton University. She received a BA in Latin from Brooklyn College, CUNY, PhD in Classics from University of Califoia, Berkeley, and was the American Fellow at the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae in Munich.

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